A New Fight

Category: Tennis

Publish Date: 04-09-2010 04:43 PM -0400

A week ago our photo editor, David Rosenberg, had some gossip. But it wasn’t the good kind. He had come across a photo of Martina Navratilova in a swimsuit with a large bandage underneath her arm. That got the speculation started around the office, and it was unhappily confirmed this week when Navratilova, 53, announced that she has ductal carcinoma in situ, a form of breast cancer. That’s the bad news. The good news is the cancer has not spread and her outlook is “excellent.”�

Though she was shocked when she found out (“I was devastated, physically, I couldn’t think, I couldn’t move, I was useless,” she said on Good Morning America on Wednesday), Navratilova went on the offensive. She had a lumpectomy in February and will undergo six weeks of radiation starting in May. The 59-time Grand Slam winner (in singles, doubles and mixed doubles) has now gone on an offensive of another kind: a crusade for awareness.

Surprisingly for such a supremely fit, multitasking go-getter, Navratilova put off getting a mammogram for four years because she moved and changed doctors. And that was after her mother and sister both had benign calcifications in their breasts. Navratilova doesn’t want other women to make the same mistake. She’s now telling her story and advocating for women to schedule their yearly check-ups. As for the controversial new recommendations that say most women should wait until they’re 50, instead of 40, to start getting regular mammograms, Navratilova said sarcastically on GMA, “The cancer knows that you’re not 50 yet, so it’s going to wait. I don’t know who came up with these recommendations.”

Ever the model for the active lifestyle, Navratilova has no plans to slow down. Her radiation is scheduled for during the French Open, but she still hopes to commentate for Tennis Channel. She has kept up her health and fitness regimen, as well. She played in the Hit for Haiti in Indian Wells between her biopsy and lumpectomy and has continued to play hockey and bicycle. "I gravitated towards yoga these last few months and find it extremely relaxing and calming, so I expect I will be doing that as much as possible," she wrote in an e-chat to answer questions on the website of the AARP, where she's the health and fitness ambassador.�

She also chatted about the outpouring of support she’s received: “My tennis friend Jim Courier sent me a sweet e-mail yesterday saying he felt sorry for the cancer because I was going to kick its ass,” she wrote. “I said thank you so much, Jim. Don’t feel sorry for the cancer—but yes, I will kick its ass.” I have no doubt that she will.

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