Hubbard first trans Olympian?
New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard is on the brink of becoming the first transgender athlete to compete at the Olympic Games.
Hubbard appears likely to be named in the New Zealand team to compete at the postponed Tokyo Olympics after unofficially meeting the qualifying standard in the women’s super heavyweight category after the qualifying process was altered due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, the qualification process for weightlifters throughout the world doesn’t finish until the end of May and the New Zealand Olympic Committee will still need to assess – in conjunction with Olympic Weightlifting NZ – the places offered to NZ/Oceania lifters and then decide if those athletes fit the NZOC selection criteria of being capable of a top 16 place in Tokyo.
Hubbard, who won silver at the 2017 world championships and was sixth in 2019 after suffering a major injury while competing at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, appears likely to meet the selection criteria.
The 43-year-old transitioned in 2012 and became the first transgender athlete to represent New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games in 2018.
While trying for a Commonwealth record 132kg in the snatch in the women’s 91kg-plus competition, Hubbard’s injury occurred when the bar fell awkwardly behind her and she reeled in pain clutching her left elbow, ending her dream of winning Commonwealth Games gold. It was later confirmed she had completely ruptured a ligament in her arm. She initially said it would force her retirement from the sport.
NZOC public affairs and communications director Ashley Abbott told Stuff the International Weightlifting Federation qualification system had been updated due to the effects of Covid-19 worldwide.
‘‘There were six competition events that were required for weightlifting and now there are four – and our weightlifters have done the four.’’
Abbott said there were New Zealand lifters likely to receive spots given how the rankings were but that needs to be tempered ‘‘because we need to revise the legal nomination criteria – because of the changes to the IWF rules’’.
The NZOC will then assess all of
the lifters who have met the qualification criteria and their chances of a strong showing at the Tokyo Olympics, set to start in July, with a decision expected in the next three to four weeks.
‘‘The New Zealand team has a strong culture of manaaki and inclusion and respect for all. We look forward to supporting all athletes selected to the New Zealand team in Tokyo 2020,’’ an NZOC release said yesterday.
Under IOC guidelines, issued in November, 2015, athletes who identify as female can compete in the women’s category provided their total testosterone level in serum is kept below 10 nanomoles per litre for at least 12 months, and cannot change to compete again as a man.
However, New Zealand researchers said in 2019 trans athletes have an ‘unfair’ advantage over other women and sport needs to fix binary gender categories.
The advantages trans athletes have over female competitors were considerably large and sport needed to look hard at fairness, along with their inclusion policies, Otago University Associate Professor of Physiology Lynley Anderson said.
In a paper published in the BMJ Journal of Medical Ethics, Anderson and two Otago colleagues found the 10nmol/L level permitted by the International Olympic Committee was ‘‘significantly higher than that of cis-gender women, whose sex and gender align as female’’.
Samoa’s Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi made it clear he didn’t support trans athletes competing in women’s sport when Hubbard won three medals at the 2019 Pacific Games.
‘‘This fa’afafine or man should have never been allowed by the Pacific Games Council president to lift with the women. I was shocked when I first heard about it,’’ he told the Samoa Observer.
‘‘No matter how we look at it, he’s a man (sic) and it’s shocking this was allowed in the first place.’’
Samoa 2019 chairman Loau Solamalemalo Keneti Sio called Hubbard’s participation in the women’s over-87kg class ‘‘unfair’’.
‘‘We all know that it is not fair to the women lifters but that is a reality we face in the world of sports.’’
Samoa Weightlifting Federation president Jerry Wallwork said Samoa lifter Feiagaiga Stowers trained for the 2018 Commonwealth Games knowing she had no hope of winning gold against Hubbard. Stowers did win gold following Hubbard’s withdrawal through injury.