Current Events > Transgender weightlifter fails on all three attempts and out of Olympics early

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https://sports.yahoo.com/laurel-hubbard-transgender-weightlifter-exits-olympic-competition-early-after-failing-on-all-three-attempts-115507630.html

Laurel Hubbard, a transgender weightlifter from New Zealand, was knocked out of the womens 87+ kilogram competition early after failing on all three of her attempts. Hubbard failed on her first attempt to get 120kg above her head, bailing out early. On her second attempt at 125kg, she was able to get the weight up and pumped her fist after in satisfaction, however judges ruled it a no lift. She returned quickly for another attempt at 125kg only to fail to stand up with the weight above her head. Hubbard was the only one of the 13 finalists to not complete at least one lift. After the bar fell to the ground, she patted her chest and made a heart out of her hands as a signal to those in attendance and, presumably, anyone watching around the world. Hubbard has generated enormous attention in the run-up to the 87+kg finals. Her presence has sparked debates about whether transgender athletes should be included, and by what standards, in the Olympics against concerns about what is fair to the other competitors. In the middle is limited scientific research concerning the advantages for the transgender athletes, especially those who didnt transition until after they went through puberty as a male. The International Olympic Committee has said it will unveil a new framework on the issue soon, calling its current policy outdated.

In the interim, Hubbard took the stage here inside a theater in central Tokyo, where no fans but plenty of media from around the world were there to watch. What advantages Hubbard had were impossible to know, especially in lieu of her performance. She stood out on age alone, though; at 43, she was by far the oldest of the 13 finalists. American Sarah Elizabeth Robles was 33, but everyone else was in their 20s, including six competitors aged 21 or younger. The IOC is still wrestling with the issue. Its guidance will determine the standards applied by many individual sports federations, such as, in this case, the International Weightlifting Federation. "What's really important to remember is that trans women are women, said Richard Budgett, director of the IOCs medical and scientific department. And so, in the spirit of inclusion in sport, if at all possible, they should be included in sport. It's only where there's evidence of real concern that that would lead to a disproportionate performance advantage for those individuals should any rules and regulations come in to change that eligibility, Budgett said. The IOC is determined to increase inclusion in sport as one of the fundamentals, but at the same time our highest, highest priority is fairness." The challenge for the IOC is determining that fairness. Transgender women competing in elite competitions are so rare that experts say are still making assumptions, especially when trying to determine allowable amounts of hormones in the athlete. There are also variances in different sports and even different events within a sport. Do transgender athletes have greater endurance? Strength? Stamina? Etc. "What might be true for rowing and this specific discipline where potentially testosterone or other aspects come into play in order to justify the reasons there is a disproportionate advantage might be totally irrelevant in another context, said Katie Mascagni, the IOCs head of public affairs.



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Um

Oly weightlifting is brutal. Lockout rules are so strict, so hard to execute too.

Best of luck to her, but I'd be surprised if she competes at the olympics again.

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To paraphrase a quote I can't remember - there's a contradiction that comes with bigotry where the target of that bigotry will be too strong in one breath, and too weak and feeble in the next. That way, they can be attacked as a threat, and ridiculed as a joke.

Laurel Hubbard was targeted by transphobes for years because supposedly, her AGAB gave her a natural advantage over cisgender women bodybuilders. This was despite the fact that even as a transgender woman, she continued to compete in men's events. Now that she's gone to the Tokyo Olympics and failed to medal, this will become a source of ridicule - that she wasn't strong enough to perform on a national stage, and that she's a failed bodybuilder who's past her prime, a national disappointment and someone who should retire.

Mark my words. Despite spending years as a transphobic talking point, her failure to secure a medal will lead to ridicule by the same transphobes who called her transition an unfair biological advantage.

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She had to lift the weight of all that was surrounding her on top of the physical bar and plates.

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MrMallard posted...

To paraphrase a quote I can't remember - there's a contradiction that comes with bigotry where the target of that bigotry will be too strong in one breath, and too weak and feeble in the next.

Laurel Hubbard was targeted by transphobes for years because supposedly, her AGAB gave her a natural advantage over cisgender women bodybuilders. This was despite the fact that even as a transgender woman, she continued to compete in men's events. Now that she's gone to the Tokyo Olympics and failed to medal, this will become a source of ridicule - that she wasn't strong enough to perform on a national stage, and that she's a failed bodybuilder who's past her prime, a national disappointment and someone who should retire.

Mark my words. Despite spending years as a transphobic talking point, her failure to secure a medal will lead to ridicule by the same transphobes who called her transition an unfair biological advantage.

Her becoming a personal target and pin up for what should have been entirely a regulatory argument is deeply unfair and it did bring out so much hateful bigotry, but I never liked how the controversial argument pendulum swung all the way to "an advantage does not exist, because transphobes".

Like...there's a little more to it than that.

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But I thought trans people had an extremely unfair advantage in weightlifting!

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So are transphobes happy at this or angry that their arguments were rendered meaningless?

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Garioshi posted...

But I thought trans people had an extremely unfair advantage in weightlifting!

You can posses a massive advantage but still lose from time to time.

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Kavatar posted...

So are transphobes happy at this or angry that their arguments were rendered meaningless?

They will pretend to be happy but you know they are angry.

Fox probably had like 10,000+ segments to run on her if she ended up a medalist.

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A disappointing ending that's only notable because people were obsessed with a trans woman competing and the usual idiots certain she would blow the competition away.

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Kavatar posted...

So are transphobes happy at this or angry that their arguments were rendered meaningless?

They already shifted the goalposts. Saying she

• Stole an olympic spot from a "real" woman
• Saying she threw
• Saying that even if she lost, there'll be younger "biological men" doing this successfully in the future
• Saying she "cheated" and still lost

In other words, they don't actually care about facts. And they certainly never cared about women, fairness, protecting women from sexual assault or anything like that (the silence from males on twitter on the US competitor currently facing charges for sexual assault is extremely noticeable). It was always about attacking trans women, always. Anyone who thinks there's an advantage is ignoring science and facts and instead going off of their feelings.

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Garioshi posted...

But I thought trans people had an extremely unfair advantage in weightlifting!

I mean, she's 43 years old and still qualified
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voldothegr8 posted...

I mean, she's 43 years old and still qualified

She's also from a small island nation, I can't imagine there were many competitors in her weight class, she was in 87+ kg, no?

Assuming it's because she's trans is the lazy and agenda-fueled response.

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gunplagirl posted...

Saying she threw

Hard not to see this
Just 2 years prior, she could snatch 131kg,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMHEkWZsUt0

In 2019 at age 41, she won two gold medals at the 2019 Pacific Games
In 2020 at age 42, she won a gold medal at the Roma 2020 World Cup
In 2021 at age 43, she qualified for the Olympic games, where she couldn't lift her usual weights

How did a world cup winner fail at 120kg?
We will never know, but I'd imaging it being the pressure.
When I watched her Olympic clip though, I didn't see the same mental focus as when she set her personal best.

gunplagirl posted...

Saying she threw

It's not hard to make a case for this.
Just 2 years prior, she could snatch 131kg,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMHEkWZsUt0

In 2019 at age 41, she won two gold medals at the 2019 Pacific Games
In 2020 at age 42, she won a gold medal at the Roma 2020 World Cup
In 2021 at age 43, she qualified for the Olympic games, where she couldn't lift her usual weights

How did a world cup winner fail at 120kg? We will never know, but I'd imaging it being the pressure.
When I watched her Olympic clip though, I didn't see the same mental focus as when she set her recorded best.

The Chinese competitor was going to win regardless, she was miles ahead of everyone in the competition, so if by some chance Laurel did throw it, it wasn't worth it.

So she couldn't cut it as a man, and now failed as a woman.
I wonder what kind of rules are they going to implement.

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gunplagirl posted...

She's also from a small island nation, I can't imagine there were many competitors in her weight class, she was in 87+ kg, no?

Assuming it's because she's trans is the lazy and agenda-fueled response.

Does it matter how many competitors there were in her nation when a person has to qualify on Olympic standards?

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