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Martina Navratilova, the former world number one tennis star, said yesterday that she had regained Czech nationality more than 30 years after fleeing its communist rule to live in the US. The 51-year-old, who won the Wimbledon singles title a record nine times, said that she was maintaining dual nationality and keeping her US passport. But her announcement, at a Tokyo press conference, raised questions over whether she planned to leave America, after a series of controversial attacks on President Bush and the Republican party. Born in Prague, Navratilova defected to the United States in 1975 aged 18, angering the communist authorities who stripped her of her nationality. She was granted a green card within a month and US citizenship six years later. Navratilova said last year that while she was once ashamed about Czechoslovakia, she was now ashamed of the United States under Mr Bush. “The thing is that we elected Bush. That is worse! Against that, nobody chose a communist government in Czechoslovakia,†she told the Czech daily Lidove Noviny. In 2002, she told a German newspaper: “The most absurd part of my escape from the unjust system is that I have exchanged one system that suppresses free opinion for another. The Republicans in the US manipulate public opinion and sweep controversial issues under the table. It’s depressing. Decisions in America are based solely on the question of how much money will come out of it and not on the questions of how much health, morals or environment suffer as a result.†Navratilova was confronted with her comments in July 2002 by Connie Chung, then a CNN talk show host, who told the tennis star that when she read them, “I wanted to say, go back to Czechoslovakia. You know, if you don’t like it here, this is a country that gave you so much, gave you the freedom to do what you want.†Czechoslovakia split in 1993 after the fall of communism into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Navratilova, winner of 59 Grand Slam titles, came out publicly in 1981 about her lesbianism, shortly after being granted US citizenship. She pointed out that under communist rule in Czechoslovakia, “gays were sent to insane asylums and lesbians never came out of the closet.†She retired in 1994 but returned to play doubles in 2000, again winning several tournaments. She definitively hung up her racket in December 2006 after winning in mixed doubles at the US Open, the 354th tournament of her career. She is planning to open an academy for young tennis players in the Czech Republic.
