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Upset with Pres. Bush Navratilova regains her Czech nationality

3K views 51 replies 41 participants last post by  toasino 
#1 ·
4pm GMT

'Ashamed' Navratilova regains Czech nationality
  • This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Tuesday March 11 2008. It was last updated at 17:07 on March 11 2008.
Martina Navratilova is 'ashamed' of George Bush. Photograph: Kiyoshi Ota/Reuters

Martina Navratilova, the nine-time Wimbledon champion, has regained her Czech nationality after saying she was "ashamed" of George Bush.

Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, where she is due to play in an exhibition tournament, Navratilova confirmed she had again become a citizen of the country of her birth, 33 years after she fled communist Czechoslovakia to live in the US.

"I lost [Czech citizenship] at the time I defected. I got it back on February 9," she said, adding that she had decided to retain her US nationality.

In an interview last year with a Czech newspaper, Lidove Noviny, the tennis player said she was as ashamed of the US under Bush as she once was about Czechoslovakia, which split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia after communism fell in 1993.

"The thing is that we elected Bush," she said. "That is worse! Against that, nobody chose a communist government in Czechoslovakia."

Navratilova was 18 when she fled to the US, angering the communist Czech regime, which immediately stripped her of her nationality. She became an American citizen in 1981. She later said she had been forced to leave Czechoslovakia because the authorities were trying to stop her from playing in the US, where the majority of big tournaments were then held.

She had little cause to regret that decision. She went on to become one of the most successful players of all time, winning 18 grand slam singles titles, including nine Wimbledon crowns, and 31 grand slam doubles titles. Her natural strength and obsession with physical fitness helped prolong her career well beyond the length of most athletes.

Navratilova retired in 1994 but re-emerged six years later to win several doubles tournaments. She played her last competitive match in 2006, capturing the mixed doubles title at the US Open, the 354th tournament of her career.

Since retiring, the outspoken 51-year-old has commentated for the BBC and the Tennis Channel, but devotes much of her time to charitable and political causes. She has worked for People for Ethical Treatment of Animals and underprivileged children and campaigned for gay and lesbian rights.

She is currently a fitness and health ambassador for the AARP, an advocacy group for the over-50s that has more than 39 million members, and plans to open a tennis academy for youngsters in the Czech Republic.

Navratilova first indicated she was unhappy with the Bush administration's position on gay and lesbian rights in a 2002 interview on CNN's Connie Chung Tonight show.

Asked why she had told a German newspaper that she felt as if she had changed "one system that suppresses free opinion for another", Navratilova said that, as a lesbian, life was harder in the US than in Europe.

Accused by Chung of being "un-American", Navratilova responded: "When I see something that I don't like, I'm going to speak out because you can do that here. And again, I feel there are too many things happening that are taking our rights away.
"I think athletes have a duty to speak out when there is something that's not right, when they feel that perhaps social issues are not being paid attention to. As a woman, as a lesbian, as a woman athlete, there is a whole bunch of barriers that I've had to jump over, and we shouldn't have to be jumping over them any more."
 
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#40 ·
You're right, but it puts her in a headline...Somewhere.

it's not big deal whoop t doo, she now has duel citizenship. Be bold give up your US citizenship.
 
#14 ·
Martina is playing both sides. I can relate, I mean I am so close to moving to Canada.
 
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#18 ·
If Billie Jean King had done it, I'd be surprised. Martina has been promising to get her Czech citizenship back for quite a while now, so what's the shock really. Some of us don't have anywhere else to go, so we hang in there through the good and the bad happenings in hopes of positive changes in our countries (USA or where ever).
 
#19 ·
What an empty meaningless, run with the hare and hunt with the hounds gesture! She sure liked the good ol U.S.A when it suited her,nothing like a plastic protester is there?I have to bugger off for a few days looking for cattle in the bush, at least I won't read about Martina Tupperware:mad:
 
#42 ·
What an empty meaningless, run with the hare and hunt with the hounds gesture! She sure liked the good ol U.S.A when it suited her,nothing like a plastic protester is there?I have to bugger off for a few days looking for cattle in the bush, at least I won't read about Martina Tupperware:mad:
"when it suited her....." That is the underlying theme of this farce. Self-serving trick And yes, I said FARCE. Methinks she is trying to send a message with this gesture, but I feel people can really give a rat's arse. Of course Martina is heralded in the tennis world, but in the political ring, she's toast.....BURNT TOAST. I'm sure Georgeypoo didn't even give a 2nd glance at the spectacle of Martina's "ashamed" comments.....heaven knows he's heard it before...with all his empty gestures and defunct policies. Hell, even I shudder on the inside when mentioning that I'm American abroad :tape: So don't blame Martina ( :tape: ) She's just trying to send a message....as usual. Oh, and btw, aside from the crow's feet around those heavily bagged eyes, she looks great for 51 (not sarcasm).
 
#20 ·
she should give up her american citizenship entirely and get the hell out of this country since it's soooo bad.

it's easy, and a mark of privilege, to be able to escape. but it's a mark of courage to fight and speak out.

she could have just said oh i want to reconnect with my roots, blah blah blah and that's why i want to have citizenship. but no, she had to insult the u.s., a country that opened it's doors to her when she decided to abandon her birth country.

this country has enabled her to do so well in life and this is how she repays the u.s.?

please leave.
 
#28 ·
Well said. Actually her actions are an insult to those minorities in America and other countries who - for better or worse - stayed and fought for a better life because it was the right thing to do rather than cause a drama and leave.

Fact is, Martina didn't need to leave. She decided to be a drama queen and turn her back on not the Administration in office right now - but the American people and especially fans - who embraced her when she desperately needed America.

She should grow up and realise that in a democratic country like America, Administrations don't last more than at most 8 years and that you have freedom of speech to speak up and act. She chose to run away and be a drama queen.

Good riddance.
 
#25 ·
Why are you all so upset, Martina told years ago that she hated Bush, she never said that she hated the country or its people although she had reasons enough. Martina has given more to the USA then it has given her, you have never been really nice to her. Martina earned her money all over the world with tennismatches but she spent it in the USA en paid her taxes there. You gave her no endorsements when she was a world class player and always talking first of all the tennisplayers born on American soil. When the Czech republic became a member of the European Community she got the chance to get her Czech passport back that they had taken from her after her defection. It took the USA 6 years to give her citizenship so that was not very quick, 6 years to tell that you do not belong to any country. Where were you with your protest or are you to young to know this all. Martina should have gone to some nice European country when she defected, after all in her heart she is European. She has tried to get het passport from the Czech Republic for several years the stuff they are writing in this article is old and she explained a couple of months ago in tennis magazine how things really were.I know one thing from this board if you think you can write negative things about Martina you will do it. There are plenty of positive things to write about do that too. Like that tennis is a lot more boring now then in her days.
 
#26 ·
Connie Chung is an idiot to call her Unamerican just because she spoke out against the administration. I hate the fact that anyone criticising anything is unpatriotic and doesn't care about their country. This does seem quite a drastic move, though.
 
#27 ·
Good grief! Smart choice she made there, keeping her US passport. But as a celebrity, did it cross her mind doing that might make some people think she's "ashamed" of the US as a country, rather than its president? :confused:

yukon145 said:
if she is so 'ashamed' of the US why is she still going to live here? is she 'ashamed' of all the opportunities this country have given her and the money she has made?

didn't think so.
Martina earned that money through her OWN efforts. True, the US offered opportunities, but what Martina made of it was her doing, not the country's.
 
#31 ·
Obviously some people here either can't read or didn't bother at all.

To make their life easier, I'll highlight the points raised in the article.

Martina Navratilova, the nine-time Wimbledon champion, has regained her Czech nationality...
"Regained" her Czech nationality, not "swapping" it.

...saying she was "ashamed" of George Bush.
"Ashamed" of George Bush, not the U.S.

"I lost [Czech citizenship] at the time I defected. I got it back on February 9," she said, adding that she had decided to retain her US nationality.
She retained her U.S. passport, and didn't give it up.

Accused by Chung of being "un-American", Navratilova responded: "When I see something that I don't like, I'm going to speak out because you can do that here. And again, I feel there are too many things happening that are taking our rights away.
"I think athletes have a duty to speak out when there is something that's not right, when they feel that perhaps social issues are not being paid attention to. As a woman, as a lesbian, as a woman athlete, there is a whole bunch of barriers that I've had to jump over, and we shouldn't have to be jumping over them any more."
A foundation of America's system is freedom. And that includes having the right to voice an opinion.

So how's that "un-American"? :confused:
 
#32 ·
Obviously some people here either can't read or didn't bother at all.

To make their life easier, I'll highlight the points raised in the article.



"Regained" her Czech nationality, not "swapping" it.



"Ashamed" of George Bush, not the U.S.



She retained her U.S. passport, and didn't give it up.



A foundation of America's system is freedom. And that includes having the right to voice an opinion.

So how's that "un-American"? :confused:
Like I said, she wants drama. Anyone can just regain their lost nationality or get a new one; or speak up against their government but she decided to do both at the same time.

What she's doing seems innocent but she's making a statement that she prefers Czech citizenship now. That's the whole UNamerican thing. Not that she dared to speak up against the Administration.
 
#33 ·
It's not about the actual physical actions but the symbolism.

By making a symbolic statement that she prefers to be Czech now, she's implicitly saying that she's ashamed to be American.

You can speak up against the Administration. Personally, I know many American environmental groups that have. They criticize and criticize Bush and his policies but they're not UNamerican and they're not packing up and getting citizenships elsewhere.
 
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