Gymnast, say, permitted to appear in articles (7)
I believe the answer is:
athlete
'gymnast' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'permitted to appear in articles' is the wordplay.
'permitted' becomes 'let' (to let something happen is to permit it).
'to appear in' indicates putting letters inside.
'articles' becomes 'a the' ('a' and 'the', indefinite and definite articles).
'let' placed inside 'athe' is 'ATHLETE'.
'say' is the link.
(Other definitions for athlete that I've seen before include "One trained to compete in sports" , "Eg long jumper" , "Olympian" , "One competes in sports" , "Sporty type" .)