Martina Navratilova: Lia Thomas wins should have an 'asterisk'

Alliance for Defending Freedom Spokesperson Christiana Holcomb and Track and Field competitor Chelsea Mitchell on the NCAA reviewing the Lia Thomas’ eligibility for the upcoming championship.

Martina Navratilova, widely considered one of the greatest female tennis players in history, suggested that when transgender swimmers like Lia Thomas win women's races, they should have "an asterisk" by the victory because "the rules are not correct."

Navratilova's comments came after Lia Thomas, a University of Pennsylvania swimmer, won an NCAA national championship race in the 500-yard freestyle on Thursday. Thomas had gone through male puberty and previously competed on the men's swimming team. Sixteen of Thomas' fellow teammates wrote a letter claiming that "Biologically, Lia holds an unfair advantage over competition in the women’s category, as evidenced by her rankings that have bounced from #462 as a male to #1 as a female."

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Navratilova, one of the first openly lesbian sportswomen, insisted that the rules allowing Thomas to compete against women are unfair. She proposed a strategy that would not exclude transgender athletes but would prevent male-to-female athletes from claiming victory unfairly.

Martina Navratilova smiles after meeting Britain's Queen Elizabeth at the Queen attends the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London June 24, 2010. (REUTERS/Pool/Oli Scarf )

"It's not about excluding transgender women from winning ever," Navratilova told NewsNation Prime. "But it is about not allowing them to win when they were not anywhere near winning as men."

"You try to keep it as close as possible to what it would