Gary Lineker's views on transgender ‘an utter load of bull----' says Navratilova

Telegraph

16-05-2025

Gary Lineker has been accused of 'astonishing ignorance' by fellow BBC stars after telling The Telegraph he did not believe that the scandal of biological males in women's sport 'would ever be a real issue'.
That assertion drew a withering response from Sharron Davies, the former Olympic silver medallist and BBC swimming presenter, who claimed that Lineker's perspective was the product of a failure of research. 'Not a real issue because it didn't affect the men's game,' she wrote, in response to his first public remarks on the transgender controversies convulsing female sport, where he claimed to know of just three such cases.
Davies said: 'His ignorance in this article is astonishing. Should keep his mouth shut unless he can be bothered to do some homework. Over 1,600 men in women's sports in the USA and Canada alone!'
Lineker alluded to the examples of American swimmer Lia Thomas, New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif – not transgender but allowed to win gold as a woman at the Paris Olympics after sex tests indicating male chromosomes – as the only examples of which he was aware.
'Not just three – of which one is a DSD [differences in sexual development] athlete, not even trans,' Davies said. 'But suggest he has no idea of the difference? One removing fairness or safety for females in female sport is one too many.'
Davies, Martina Navratilova and hundreds of other women had implored him to address the matter last November, when his podcast The Rest Is Football invited questions from listeners, but he ignored all such requests, explaining in his Telegraph interview that he felt the subject was 'too nuanced' to be discussed on the show and declaring that transgender people were 'some of the most persecuted on the planet'.
Lineker insisted he had a positive relationship with Navratilova, the nine-time Wimbledon singles champion and regular BBC presenter at the All England Club, revealing he was helping her produce a podcast of her own. 'I don't think she has got an issue with me,' he said, although this was contradicted by her savage response to his latest comments.
'Truly unbelievable,' Navratilova said. 'What an utter load of BS – and I am being nice. Seriously Gary? It's OK for men to compete against female bodies? You must be joking.'
This backlash from BBC colleagues comes amid acute unrest inside the corporation at Lineker's sharing of a post on Instagram about the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which featured a rat emoji traditionally used as an anti-Semitic slur. While Lineker later issued an unreserved apology, Jewish members of BBC staff have expressed disgust at director-general Tim Davie's failure to impose any sanction.
'It is quite simply disgusting that the BBC has not kicked Lineker out,' said one employee this week, speaking anonymously. 'His repeated offensiveness to Jewish people has clearly brought the BBC into disrepute.'
On the transgender debate, Lineker gave a clear explanation of where his empathy lay. 'I genuinely feel really bad for trans people,' he said. 'Imagine going through what they have to go through in life. You've got to be very careful not to have bigoted views.'
Tina Daniels, an athlete who was a British men's record-holder in para-sport prior to gender reassignment, pushed back strongly on this perspective, saying: 'Hi, Gary Lineker. I'm a transsexual athlete and my male advantages are insurmountable. I stay out of female sports. Each place that a trans-identifying male takes denies a female a rightful opportunity. Her hard work is nullified.'