Hubbard selected as the first Olympic transgender in New Zealand LGBTQ News

Laurel Hubbard, 43, will compete in the Tokyo Women’s Weightlifting Super-Week.

Laurel Hubbard will become the first transgender athlete to compete in weightlifting at the Olympics, after New Zealand was selected for the women’s test at the Tokyo Games after deciding to test the ideal of fair competition in the sport.

New Zealand Olympic Committee chief Kereyn Smith said the 43-year-old Hubbard – who was named a man at birth but went on to become a woman in 2013 – met all the qualifying criteria for transgender athletes.

“We recognize that gender identity in sport is a very sensitive and complex issue, a balance between human rights and fair play in the field of play,” Smith said in a statement.

Hubbard will compete in the 87kg super weight category after showing testosterone levels below the threshold required by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The 43-year-old man competed in men’s weightlifting competitions before making the transition.

“I am grateful and humble for the kindness and support that so many friends in New Zealand have given me,” Hubbard, a highly private person who rarely speaks to the media, said in a statement from the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) on Monday.

Hubbard had the right to compete in the Olympics since 2015, when the IOC issued guidelines for any transgender female athlete to compete if her testosterone level was less than 10 nanomoles per liter, 12 months before the first competition.

Some scientists say the guidelines do not alleviate the biological benefits of men who have gone through adolescence, including bone and muscle density.

Proponents of the introduction of transgender say that the transition process significantly reduces this advantage and that physical differences between athletes never mean a real playing field.

Save Women Sport Australasia, a group in favor of women athletes, criticized Hubbard’s selection.

“It is the fault of the COI that has allowed the selection of a 43-year-old biological male who is identified as a woman to compete in the women’s category,” the team said in a statement.

Weightlifting has been at the center of the debate over the fairness of transgender athletes competing against women, and Hubbard’s presence in Tokyo can be divisive.

He won his gold medal at the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa, and took the podium ahead of Samoa Commonwealth Games champion Foaiga Stowers, causing outrage in the host country.

Samoa’s weightlifting chief has said Hubbard’s selection for Tokyo will be like letting the athletes “dope” and fears the small Pacific nation could cost him a medal.

Anna Vanbellinghen, a Belgian weightlifter, said last month that allowing Hubbard to compete in Tokyo was unfair to women and “like a bad joke.”

The Australian Weightlifting Federation wanted to ban Hubbard from competing in the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast but organizers rejected the move.

Hubbard was forced to retire after injuring himself during the competition, and he thought his career was over.

“When I broke my arm at the Commonwealth Games three years ago, I was surely told that my sporting career was coming to an end,” Hubbard said Monday, thanking New Zealanders.

“But your help, your encouragement, and your age (love) took me out of the darkness.”

New Zealand Olympic weightlifting President Richie Patterson said Hubbard has worked hard to recover from a potential end-of-career injury.

“Laurel has shown great pain and perseverance in overcoming a major injury and overcoming the challenges of regaining confidence on the competition platform,” he said.

Hubbard is currently ranked 16th in the world in the super heavyweight category.