Martina Navratilova showed support for Angel Reese, the standout player for the LSU Tigers, after Reese shared her experiences with facing harsh criticism following her team’s victory in the 2023 NCAA championship.
Following their loss of 94-87 to the Iowa Hawkeyes in the 2024 March Madness Elite Eight game on Monday, April 1, the star player of the LSU Tigers spoke about the emotional impact of fame during a post-match press conference.
Despite leading her team to victory in last year’s NCAA championship, Reese has been met with severe criticism, including accusations of receiving death threats and experiencing racist comments due to her behavior on the court towards Iowa’s Caitlin Clark. Nevertheless, both athletes have consistently denied any claims of a feud in the time since the championship.
The X (formerly known as Twitter) user who shared Reese’s interview highlighted the discomfort in America with the intense competition among women for success. This emphasizes the importance of a change in society’s perception and treatment of female athletes. The user also noted that this issue is not unique, as tennis icons Serena Williams and Martina Navratilova have also faced similar scrutiny throughout their careers.
“The issue is that we’re evaluating women as “women,”for their femininity even when they’re embodying a masculine role (men and women both possess a masculine and feminine aspect). Why is society uncomfortable with women acting out masculine roles?”the user wrote.
“The answer is actually quite simple: the masculine pattern of an athletic competitor is as a warrior and warriors die. Thousands of years of human history have been geared towards men dying to protect women. For a woman to “recklessly”compete upends that, even in a proxy form of competitive athletics. Deep in our subconscious, we correctly recognize that women shouldn’t be warriors,”the user added.
Martina Navratilova also shared this sentiment, responding to the video with sympathy for Reese.
“It’s normal. When you say a guy is competitive- it’s a plus. When you say a woman is competitive, it’s said with a sneer. Been there, experienced it. And for black women it’s even worse. My heart goes out to Angel Reese,”Navratilova wrote.
The Financial Impact of Martina Navratilova’s Decision to Come Out as Gay
Previously, Martina Navratilova had talked about the consequences of publicly revealing her sexual orientation as a lesbian.
Despite her athletic prowess, she encountered difficulties in promoting herself to a broader audience due to her disclosure of being a lesbian in 1981, despite being recognized as one of the greatest tennis players with the most Grand Slam titles in the Open era (18 singles, 31 women’s doubles, and 10 mixed doubles titles).
In November 2023, while speaking on the ‘On with Kara Swisher’ podcast, the Czech-American disclosed that her sponsors’ reluctance may have caused her to miss out on significant endorsement opportunities, potentially resulting in a loss of millions.
“Nobody said no, but nobody said yes either. I can’t say how much money I lost by being out, but it’s in millions, there’s no doubt about that,”Martina Navratilova said.
Navratilova admitted to receiving multiple endorsements from foreign entities and also recounted a story shared by her agent.
“I got deals in Japan, but not in America. You didn’t see any commercials,”she said. “And my agent back then said, ‘You know, when I’m in a meeting in Madison Avenue, there’s always advertisers, you throw in different names. The people get excited… when I throw in your name, the room goes silent.’”
“So, I didn’t have any deals except shoes, rackets, and clothing, but even though I was #1 in ’78-’79 before I was out,”she added. “And when I did start dominating the tour, I still didn’t get any deals in the States outside of that… Any kind of endorsements were to somebody else in Europe.”
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