Rival calls transgender athlete’s Olympic inclusion ‘a bad joke’

Laurel Hubbard is set to make history by becoming the first transgender athlete to compete at the Games, but not everyone is on board.

Belgian weightlifter Anna Vanbellinghen has described the decision to allow transgender Laurel Hubbard to compete at the Tokyo Olympics “like a bad joke”.

The New Zealand weightlifter is set to make history this year by becoming the first transgender athlete to compete at the Olympic Games.

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While the 43-year-old has yet to be named in the New Zealand team, a rule change approved by the International Olympic Committee means she would automatically qualify for the women’s superheavyweight category.

Under the new qualification rules, which came into effect after several competitions were lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hubbard will be guaranteed a spot at Tokyo if fit.

However, not everybody agreed with the IOC’s verdict.

Vanbellinghen — who competes in the same division as Hubbard — claimed the principle of inclusion should not be “at the expense of others”.

Belgian athlete Anna Vanbellinghen.

“Anyone that has trained weightlifting at a high level knows this to be true in their bones; this particular situation is unfair to the sport and to the athletes,” Vanbellinghen told Olympics news website insidethegames.

“I understand that for sports authorities nothing is as simple as following your common sense and that there are a lot of impracticalities when studying such a rare phenomenon, but for athletes, the whole thing feels like a bad joke.

“Life-changing opportunities are missed for some athletes — medals and Olympic qualifications — and we are powerless.”

Hubbard won silver at the 2017 world championships and represented New Zealand at the 2018 Commonwealth Games before suffering a severe injury in competition.

While she will be the oldest weightlifter at the Games, she will also be a genuine medal hopeful with her qualifying lifts ranking her at fourth out of the 14 qualifiers in the 87kg-plus category.

New Zealand’s Laurel Hubbard.

In 2015, the IOC issued new guidelines allowing athletes who transition from male to female to compete in the women’s category provided their testosterone levels are below 10 nanomoles per litre for at least 12 months before their first competition — a rule also followed by the International Weightlifting Federation.

Hubbard has competed in men’s weightlifting competitions before transitioning in 2013, but didn’t compete internationally.

Her gold medal wins at the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa, where she beat Samoa’s Commonwealth Games champion Feagaiga Stowers, sparked outrage in the island nation.

Australia’s weightlifting federation tried to block Hubbard from competing at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, but it was rejected by organisers.

— with NZ Herald