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Tennis legend Martina Navratilova reacted to two Oregon high school athletes who refused to stand with a transgender athlete following the girls’ high jump state championships on Saturday.
Reese Eckard, of Sherwood High School, and Alexa Anderson, of Tigard High School, stepped down from the podium and refused to share the spot with the transgender athlete who finished in fifth place. Anderson finished in third and Eckard in fourth.
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Oregon girls’ track and field athletes Reese Eckard and Alexa Anderson refuse to stand on a medal podium next to a trans opponent. (Courtesy of America First Policy Institute)
Footage obtained by Fox News Digital showed an official confronting Eckard and Anderson.
“Women and girls are punished no matter what they do in this misogynistic world…” Navratilova wrote on X.
She added that “Feminists never asked for this. At least not the great majority of us… never.”
Navratilova has been a major voice in the effort to protect women’s sports. She has been particularly critical of Democrats who have failed to step up to the plate, with their Republican colleagues, to help pass legislation to prohibit males from competing in girls’ and women’s sports.
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Tennis legend Martina Navratilova during the trophy presentations, which she presented along with Chris Evert after the Women’s Singles Final on Court Philippe-Chatrier at the 2024 French Open Tennis Tournament at Roland Garros on June 8, 2024 in Paris. (Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)
At the start of the year, Navratilova criticized Democratic lawmakers who killed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. The tennis legend called on Democrats to “grow a spine” in a post on social media.
President Donald Trump signed the “No Men in Women’s Sports” executive order in February, and Navratilova lamented that Democrats failed to do what the president did.
“I hate that the Democrats totally failed women and girls on this very clear issue of women’s sports being for females only,” she wrote in a post on X.
She then posed a question to Democrats as some states thumbed their nose at Trump’s executive order.
Martina Navratilova during a joint press conference with Chris Evert of the USA, on Day 5 of the GNP Seguros WTA Finals Cancun 2023, part of the Hologic WTA Tour, on Nov. 2, 2023 in Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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“What are the Dems willing to give up for men who identify as trans?” she asked on X. “Abortion… the Constitution… rule of law… That’s just for starters…”
Fox News’ Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.
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