Martina Navratilova
Tennis

"If I had to do it all over again, there's only one thing I would change. I would have come out a lot earlier."

--Tennis legend Martina Navratilova at the Human Rights Campaign dinner 9 October 1999 in Washington, D.C., USA

In 1978 she began a relationship with Rita Mae Brown (1944 - ), an American activist and writer, but the publicity made her resign as head of the Women's Tennis Association.

She later had an affair with Judy Nelson and gained admiration by routinely climbing into the crowd at tennis matches to snog her lover after winning games.

She stepped up her campaigning for lesbian and gay rights and spoke at the march on Washington DC in April 1993. She also filed a law suit against the enactment of the homophobic Amendment 2 in Colorado which bans legal protection for lesbians and gays in the fields of housing and employment.

When she retired from singles in 1994 she had won 167 singles titles including a record nine at Wimbledon. Her victory in the 1995 Wimbledon mixed doubles extended her total of Wimbledon titles to 19, one short of Billie Jean King's record. In July 2000, aged 43, she returned to Wimbledon for the doubles, partnering Mariann de Swardt. They made it to the quarter finals, giving Venus and Serena Williams their toughest match. Martina has now been inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Adam Sweeting, The Guardian TV critic, August 1994, on the BBC documentary tribute:
"Talking openly about her lesbianism has cost her lucrative sponsorships, but it has made her a beacon of courageous independence, visible far beyond the money-mad treadmill of world tennis. Snag is, she's probably too extraordinary to be a role model."

Web sites: Martina Navratilova web site, Martina web ring,