"I expected better journalism from the Atlantic" - Martina Navratilova lashes out at magazine for publishing a controversial take on gender separation in sports

Former legendary player Martina Navratilova has criticized online magazine 'The Atlantic' for publishing a controversial article on gender separation in sports. The American publication, which was founded in November 1857, ran a story on Saturday that didn't please the 18-time Grand Slam champion.

The Atlantic's Maggie Martens wrote an article titled - 'Separating Sports by Sex doesn't make sense.' The author discussed how creating different categories for boys and girls in sports is now an old idea.

But on Monday, Martina Navratilova replied negatively to a Twitter user who shared a snippet of the article on his account.

"It’s also so so wrong… I expected better journalism from the Atlantic," Navratilova tweeted.

When performance coach and author Steve Magness took to Twitter to criticize the story, Navratilova was once again quick to claim that the article was "pure nonsense". The 18-time Slam champion then expressed surprise that such a story would be run by the Atlantic.

"I don't understand how people can make the claims in this article. Whether we like it or not, there are performance differences between men & women. If we eliminated sex-based sport, there would be zero women in elite sport. That would be a travesty," Steve Magness wrote.

"This article is just pure nonsense- I am really surprised the Atlantic would publish such drivel," Martina Navratilova replied.

Martina Navratilova, champion of several social causes, is known to stand up for what she believes in

Martina Navratilova at the 2022 US Open.

Martina Navratilova, a former World No. 1, has been consistently vocal in her social media posts and is known to mince no words while standing up for causes she believes in. The 18-time Grand Slam champion was also vocal in her support for Ukraine when Russia invaded the country earlier this year.

Further, she supported the 'Black Lives Matter' movement in 2020 after the wrongful murder of George Floyd. The 65-year-old also gave her two cents when the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

"I feel like I am back in a totalitarian country where I grew up- Czech Republic, now a thriving democracy- and I am feeling disoriented," Navratilova wrote.

"After Soviet Union fell and Czechoslovakia and all Soviet bloc countries were freed I thought what a world we can now have. And now?" Navratilova added.

The overturning of the judgment means that access to abortion has been greatly hampered in the US.