While WNBA guard Sophie Cunningham faces boos from the crowd and snide comments from coaches and players over her common sense take on protecting women’s sports, another top female athlete is making her opinion on the subject known.
Sabalenka’s Stance
The number one women’s tennis player in the world went on the record this week in favor of the Women’s Tennis Association’s (WTA) new ‘transgender’ eligibility policy, which includes a genetic test.
Aryna Sabalenka was asked about the new WTA rule that mandates one-off mandatory gene-testing for all players. The policy took effect late last month and will satisfy the requirement to compete at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
During her Canadian Open press conference Monday, Sabalenka was asked how she feels about the new policy. “I think it’s really important to keep the fairness in our tour,” she said, before elaborating on the reality of sport.
“It is obvious that biologically, right, the men are way stronger than women,” she continued. “So, I feel like it would be not really fair for the women to compete against biological men… I believe it took them a little while to make the decision, and, yeah, I, I support it.”
Ultimately, the six-time Grand Slam women’s singles and doubles champion said it is about fairness. “I’m focusing on myself, on my goals. You know, whatever it takes. If they want to test us all, I’m happy to do that. It’s pretty fair, and let’s keep it that way,” she concluded.
Sabalenka’s reasoning aligned with the WTA, which announced it updated its women’s eligibility policy to include gender screening based on biological sex “to preserve the integrity of women’s professional tennis and maintain fair competition conditions for all players.”
Megyn’s Take
On Tuesday’s show, Megyn praised Sabalenka for “saying what we all know is true” despite the current environment and how it compares to WNBA star Caitlin Clark’s recent dodge on the subject. Below are her remarks, edited for length and clarity.
“I can’t help Caitlin Clark if she can’t find the courage to speak out against this. Maybe she wants another girl to get injured in high school basketball, just like those three girls in Lowell, Massachusetts. I guess she doesn’t care. Sophie Cunningham does. Good for her. You know who else cares? Sabalenka, who is the number one player in women’s tennis.
Thanks to Martina Navratilova and some other outspoken advocates, they have now passed a rule for U.S. women’s tennis that they will only accept biological females. God bless you for doing that. And Sabalenka is a current player with a lot to lose, which is what we’ve been waiting for. [There is] Sophie Cunningham, yes, but, with respect, she is not a household name like Caitlin Clark. But Sabalenka is, if you know anything about tennis. And she did it. God bless her, and I applaud her.
Look how simple that is. She is just saying what we all know is true. It is not that hard. It’s honestly not even political. It’s just acknowledging biological reality and the reality of sport. It is not fair.
I mean, truly, will Caitlin Clark say something if LeBron James or somebody like him joins the WNBA? I wonder, would she be okay competing against such a person? What if somebody that size joins high school basketball with the up-and-comers into college athletics; or college basketball, the up-and-comers into the WNBA? Will she speak out then?
What will it take? Does somebody need to have permanent brain damage? Will that do it? I guess not, because that’s already happened, and she doesn’t want to talk about it. She said the league should work it out with their players. You are one, Caitlin.
But it’s not even about Caitlin Clark. It is about everyone who is shitting on the notion that this is a danger. There is something wrong with you people. You have ideological blinders on. Girls are being hurt in multiple ways. That is beyond dispute at this point.”
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 1,373 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.