World No. 1 women’s tennis player Aryna Sabalenka opened up on her views on the participation of transgender athletes in professional sport, saying it will be unfair for women to face “biological men” in a sport.
When asked about transgender athletes, “That’s a tricky question. I have nothing to do against them. But I feel like they still got a huge advantage over the women and I think it’s not fair on women to face basically biological men,” said Sabalenka in an interview with Piers Morgan who was on the show to promote her ‘Battle of the Sexes’ clash with Australia’s Nick Kyrgios on December 28 in Dubai.
“It’s not fair. The woman has been working her whole life to reach her limit and then she has to face a man, who is biologically much stronger, so for me I don’t agree with this kind of stuff in sport,” added the four-time Grand Slam winner.
To this, Kyrgios’s views were also aligned with the Belarusian. The former Wimbledon finalist Kyrgios said he agreed with Sabalenka. He said, “I think she hit the nail on the head.”
As per the Women’s Tennis Association’s (WTA) Tour Gender Participation Policy, it permits “transgender women” to participate only if they have declared their gender as female for a minimum of four years, and have lowered testosterone levels and agree to testing procedures that are below 2.5 nmol/L (nanomoles per litre) for the last two years.
‘All I hear here is just excuses’
Sabalenka also spoke on Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk, who, in October, had claimed that she was at a disadvantage against players like Sabalenka and Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek because they have a higher level of testosterone than she does.
“All I hear here is just excuses,” said Sabalenka when asked about Kostyuk’s statement. “It’s actually quite funny, because she (Kostyuk) is a strong girl, and she probably has more muscles than I do and she looks fit and strong, and I think that (a difference in testosterone levels) is not the case in all the matches she lost against top players.”
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