Richards, Renee

Richard Raskind was born into a family of New York Jews in 1934. His mother Muriel was one of the first female psychiatrists, but Rene Richards later wrote in her memoirs that the psychological situation in the house was unhealthy: profound conflicts were hidden behind external Victorian decency. His elder sister Josephine (Jo) acted like a boy, and he was assigned the role of a little girl in their games; his mother periodically dressed him in women's underwear, believing that in him the boy looks more beautiful. Later, Richard himself began secretly changing into his sister’s girls' dresses ^[3] .

Richard took interest in tennis from his father, who regularly visited the local tennis club ^[4] . From the age of 12 he trained with the leading tennis coach of New York, George Sivagen . He became a player in the national high school team. Horace Mann and at age 15 won the championship of private schools in the eastern states. Entering Yale University in 1951, Richard became the first racket and captain of the tennis team of this university ^[5] . In 1953, he made his way into the main draw of the US national championship ^[6] . After graduating from Yale in 1955, Raskind entered the medical school of the University of Rochester and in 1959 became an ophthalmologist ^/ surgeon ^[7] , having started work at once in two New York hospitals. During this period, Raskind continued to perform in amateur tennis tournaments and was considered one of the best amateur tennis players in the eastern states. He has won victories in the New York Championship in singles and doubles, and after joining the U.S. Navy as a military surgeon, he became a two-time navy champion in both categories. In 1964, Raskind, who at that time wore the rank of naval captain, was fourth in the regional ranking of the eastern states ^[5] . He also excelled as a baseball player and was at some point regarded as a possible candidate for a contract with the New York Yankees as a reliever ^{[8] [9]} . Raskind later became one of the leaders of American tennis in the veteran category over 35, making his way to the finals of the US Championship ^[10] , and in 1973, at the age of 39, occupying 6th place in the rating of this age group ^[5] .

Although Raskind successfully advanced through the ranks and made progress in sports, he continued to experience serious difficulties with gender identity. He visited psychiatrists and underwent a course of hormonal treatment, which ended in the appearance of the breast and surgery to remove it. In 1966, seriously thinking about a sex-change operation, he went to Morocco , where the clinic operated on such operations, but was unsatisfied with its medical standards and did not dare to take a radical step. According to Rene's own words, during this period she tried to compensate for these problems by acting like a macho man. In 1970, Richard married, the wife of Meriam gave birth to a son, but soon after this marriage broke up ^{[11] [12]} . By 1975, Raskind’s psychological condition had deteriorated so much that, as follows from the biographical film, he had a choice - to commit suicide or undergo sex reassignment surgery ^[9] . The operation took place in the spring of 1975. Some time after her, Richard - now Renee - continued to work in New York by profession, wearing men's clothes during working hours, but then decided to change her place of residence, moving to Newport Beach in California, where no one knew her like a man ^[13] .

At the new location, Renee continued to play tennis. With her play at a local club and at an amateur tournament in a neighboring city, she attracted attention and was named a man posing as a woman in the news on local television. Rene had to be interviewed to clarify the true state of affairs. After that, statements by representatives of tennis organizations that Rene Richards would not be allowed to major competitions due to the fact that she was a man in the past appeared in the press. In response, Richards decided to interrupt her medical career for performances on the women's professional tour . Her first participation in the women's professional tournament took place in New Jersey, where the tournament manager was her friend and rival in men's veteran competitions Gene Scott ^[6] .

When it became known that a former man would participate in the tournament in New Jersey, 23 tennis players refused to participate in it. Her debut match against Katie Bean was commented on by the famous host Howard Cosell ^[6] . Although during the broadcast, Cosell joked that Richards was mainly interested in the audience for his incomprehensible sexual status ^[9] , in her memoirs she emphasized that in the post-match interview he acted like a gentleman ^[14] . Richards won this match and the next two and reached the semifinals, where she was stopped in three sets by 17-year-old Lea Antonopolis ^[12] . This defeat, which demonstrates that former Richard Raskind is not an insurmountable obstacle to the leading tennis players, prompted Richards to continue to participate in the women's round and claim to participate in the US Open . However, she was forced to take a DNA test and, on the basis of mixed results, refused to participate in this tournament. Richards sued the organizers of the US Open ^[6] . Although many women tennis players treated Richards with undisguised hostility, the creator of the women's professional tour Gladys Heldman and the leading professional tennis player Billy Jean King spoke on her side ^[15] . She was also supported by Martin Navratilova, recently emigrated to the United States. In the court, Richards was represented by the infamous lawyer Roy Cohn , and in 1977 the lawsuit was granted: Rene was allowed to participate in the US Open. In the first round, the draw brought her to the just-won Wimbledon tournament, Virginia Wade , who won in two sets with a score of 6-1, 6-4. However, in the female couples, Richards and Betty-Anne Stewart reached the finals ^[6] .

Continuing the career of a professional tennis player, in 1978 Richards played for the New Orleans Nets club of the World Team Tennis League, where NBA player John Lucas was her partner in the mixed ^[5] . She graduated in 1977 at 22nd place in the WTA ranking , and in 1979 she reached 20th position ^[7] . In the same year, she became a semi-finalist of the US Open in mixed doubles with Ilie Nastase. ^[16] Having managed to beat such rivals as Gana Mandlikova , Sylvia Hanika , Virginia Ruzichi and Pam Shriver ^[5] during her short career, Richards completed her professional tour in 1981, but continued to play the role of coach Martina Navratilova ^[7] . During her work, Navratilova won her first title at the French Open ^[5] and twice won the Wimbledon tournament; Richards also worked as a coach with a number of lesser-known tennis players ^[8] .

After the victory of Navratilova at the 1982 Wimbledon tournament, Rene Richards returned to medical practice ^[7] , eventually becoming one of the world's largest strabismus specialists ^[5] . She returned to the East Coast, where she settled in Putnam County in New York State and practiced even after reaching the age of 70 (spending the last day in the operating room in December 2013 ^[17] ). Richards no longer married, for several decades sharing the house with her secretary, but without entering into a romantic relationship with her ^[18] . She published a number of autobiographical books - “Second Serve” ( Eng. Second Serve ), “In no case, René: The Second Half of my infamous life” ( Eng. No Way Renée: The Second Half of My Notorious Life) ^[8] and “ Spy Night and Other Memoirs” ( English Spy Night and Other Memories: A Collection of Stories from Dick and Renee ) ^[15] .

In 2000, the name Rene Richards was included in the lists of the Tennis Hall of Fame of the Eastern States ^[5] . Despite her fame as a transgender athlete, Richards was skeptical of the decision to allow transgender people to participate in the Olympic Games adopted by the IOC in 2004: explaining the difference, she points out that she was over 40 years old when she joined the women's professional tour and the peak of her physical form was far behind, which did not allow her to become a real threat to younger athletes ^[18] .

Women's Doubles (0-1)

• Renée Richards, John Ames. No Way Renée: The Second Half of My Notorious Life . - Simon & Schuster, 2007. - ISBN 978-0-7432-9013-5 .

• Profile on ITF website
• Richards, Renée (inaccessible link) . Jews In Sports . Date of treatment November 10, 2017. Archived December 18, 2007.
• Nancy Gill McShea. Inductees: 2000 (inaccessible link) . USTA Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame . Date of treatment November 10, 2017. Archived March 12, 2016.