Tennis icon Martina Navratilova has criticised British Ju Jitsu after they updated a policy that allows transgender athletes to compete against biological women.
The 67-year-old, who celebrates her birthday on Wednesday, has long made her feelings on the subject clear.
Navratilova flatly opposes the idea of transgender athletes fighting biological women - and even recently snapped at Daniel Radcliffe for criticism of Harry Potter author JK Rowling.
She is often vocal on the subject on social media.
This is dangerous - a totally unconscionable decision. Women should not compete at all. Boycott these jerk who make these decisions. Who are mostly males, I am sure. https://t.co/be4B1lueZO
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) October 9, 2023
And Navratilova has now criticised British Ju Jitsu for their decision to update their policy.
A post on X revealed the news by saying: "British Ju Jitsu Association has just updated its policy to continue allowing contact competition between males and females”.
And that prompted a response from the former Wimbledon champion, who said: "This is dangerous - a totally unconscionable decision.
"Women should not compete at all. Boycott these jerk [sic] who make these decisions.
"Who are mostly males, I am sure.”
The Telegraph say an eight-page trans inclusion policy was in line with rules from the International Olympic Committee.
Transgender women who have transitioned after puberty must have testosterone below 10nmol/L for at least 12 months prior to competing against biological females.
The IOC did abandon that policy two years ago, however.
UK Sports Councils have also since concluded that the inclusion of trans women in sport cannot guarantee both fairness and safety in a single competitive model.
The British Ju Jitsu Association's trans policy no longer seems to appear on their website.
They have also insisted Navratilova's comments were not about the council, saying on X: “The comments made on X by Martina Navratilova are about a video which has nothing to do with the sport regulated by the British Ju-Jitsu Association Governing Body[BJJA GB], so we are unable to comment on the video or the social media post.
It continued: "The British Ju Jitsu Association governing body adopted a policy in an attempt to be inclusive and fair.
"That policy has never needed to be implemented at our national championships as we have not had a trans competitor seek to participate.
"However, we have now identified that the information that our policy was based on, has been superseded and as a result we are now conducting an urgent review of our trans inclusion policy so that it reflects the current thinking.
“The BJJA GB board of directors includes a female director for equality, diversity and inclusion, plus three other female directors, who are some of the highest ranking exponents of Japanese’s Ju-Jitsu in Europe.
"We are committed to ensuring that our policy is up to date and reflective of the current thinking.”
Meanwhile, Navratilova recently hit back at a fan who accused her of using testosterone during her playing career.
"F**k off on the testosterone, asshole," she said fiercely.
"My ovaries would beg to differ.
"I got to where I was with hard work and ridiculously great genes.
JK Rowling has supported Martina Navratilova for her trans views on social media
GETTY
"Thank you mom and dad. Do you know how many matches I lost because of my period? STFU."
And she then thanked Rowling after the Harry Potter author had responded by saying 'I f*****g love you'.
"This means a lot today as yesterday I was called Nazi, fascist, f*****g racist, bigot, terf- of course, told I didn’t do anything for LGBT until 1993(came out in 81), had high levels of testosterone so not a real woman," she said.
"Quite the day. So this means a lot- thank you Queen:)"
