(EFE).- Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard is set to be the first openly transgender athlete to compete in an Olympic Games, after being selected by the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) on Monday to represent the country at Tokyo 2020.
“I am grateful and humbled by the kindness and support that has been given to me by so many New Zealanders,” Hubbard, 43, who once competed at national level as Gavin Hubbard and transitioned in her mid-30s, said in a statement.
Hubbard has met the eligibility criteria of the NZOC, the International Weightlifting Federation and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), including IOC guidelines for transgender athletes.
“We acknowledge that gender identity in sport is a highly sensitive and complex issue requiring a balance between human rights and fairness on the field of play,” said NZOC chief executive officer Kereyn Smith.
“As the New Zealand Team, we have a strong culture of manaaki (support) and inclusion and respect for all.”
Hubbard, who won a silver medal at the 2017 World Championships and was sixth in 2019 after sustaining a significant injury while competing in the 2018 Commonwealth Games, was assured of an Olympic spot by finishing seventh in the women’s +87 kilograms category and the first weightlifter from Oceania in the final list of the International Weightlifting Federation.
“When I broke my arm at the Commonwealth Games three years ago, I was advised that my sporting career had likely reached its end. But your support, your encouragement, and your aroha carried me through the darkness,” she said.
Hubbard’s best total in qualifying is 285kg, which places her among the most outstanding Olympians and with a chance of a medal in the Japanese capital.
In 2015 the IOC published guidelines that allow any transgender athlete to compete as a woman as long as their testosterone levels are below 10 nanomoles per liter for at least 12 months prior to their first competition. EFE
© 2021 EFE News Services (U.S.) Inc.
—-
This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
The inclusion of transgenders in women’s sports to destroy a biological woman’s chance of winning in that sport. The destruction of women’s sports by the woke culture. What a disgrace!
YET the professional FEMALE ATHLETES ARE either silent, or “Celebrating” this insanity..
The dumbbells in weightlifting have taken on a whole new meaning, huh?
Lola. Or is he still Tommy? Did you see the rules. You can change and change back every 4 years. All you have to do is take what are really illegal drugs that get you tossed if you aren’t so deranged.
Isn’t this what the Special Olympics are for?
HELL, why then even keep ‘drug rules’ in place, if trannies can DOPE UP and say they are “Transitioning”?
Notice how he won’t compete in Men’s weightlifting like he’s biologically supposed to. He’d get destroyed. He’s now taking his advantage and basically cheating for a metal. No honor in that.
BECAUSE “IT” realizes “IT” wouldn’t WIN If “IT” did that.
I thought the Olympics tested for sex genes in order to keep men from competing against women.
Not to mention women with male hormones who were disqualifed from the former USSR!
Guess everyone of those ukranians and russians who got booted for using steroids, now have CAUSE FOR SUING To get re-recognized for what ever medals they won…
OR at least they SHOULD.
Total BS, how many transgender women to men are on an olympic team. I would guess none, since they know they wouldn’t stand a chance competing against men!
Something i’ve often asked those few folks i know, who SUPPORT transgender athletes.. WHY IS IT ONLY A ONE WAY THING? Why no women who became men, going onto male teams? Or girls who became boys suing to get into the BOYS locker rooms? WHY IS IT only men who became female?!?!?
Olympic sports will here-to-fore be known as the Freak Show.
DID You see today’s fox news, where they ridiculed one BMX athlete, who’s a transgender IT (male to female), who said she “HOPES HE wins, so she can burn the US flag on the Podium).. Apparently IT made it onto the team, as an alternate..
LETS HOPE THE COACH keeps IT on the bloody bench, the entire time!