Laurel Hubbard to go to Tokyo

I suspect Hubbard will not win. Age, fitness and the fact that Hubbard is a mediocre athelete will likely not get them a place on the podium.

This will be used as evidence that everything is fair and dandy.

But anyone who has taken part in elite sport knows how precious the opportunity to take part is, and especially at the Olympics which by definition (unless you're magically able to extend your performance into middle age by......) is something that will only come around a very few times in an athelete's career.

An Oceania woman who gave her all to try to reach the required standard for Olympic qualification will stay at home because of this. She'll be watching as Stunning and Brave is applauded. What will she be feeling?

*Changemusthappen

Ultimately the authorities are condoning drug taking in competition, I am very surprised that this hasn't been raised amongst athletes.*

Exactly this!

Are female athletes permitted to take testosterone supplements to get their levels up to 10 nmol/ litre? If not, why not.

at the end of the day this isn't the end of the world

Mmm, but interesting that attitude is aimed at women.

It wouldn't be the end of the world if Hubbard had to compete against males, either...

Yes - what a surprise. On every level - women don’t count even in their own sporting arena.

If LH becomes Olympic champion - the IOC will have excluded half the worlds population that the award is aimed at.

Males winning both the men’s and women’s is insane.

And that doesn’t even consider all the many women whose aims and ambitions that have been booted out the way for one male.

The misogyny is difficult to get past.

What TRAs don't understand is that it's irrelevant whether or not Hubbard beats everybody, or anybody for that matter.

People want to watch outstanding women. Not mediocre males.

By male standards Hubbard is pretty rubbish. Not an Olympian, in anyone's book.

at the end of the day this isn't the end of the world

Mmm, but interesting that attitude is aimed at women.

It wouldn't be the end of the world if Hubbard had to compete against males, either...

I'm so angry about this. I don't know what I can do though. Any attempt to raise discussion or to point out the obvious, even when backed up with publications on Pubmed, just gets you shouted down with accusations of being a TERF. You're just supposed to accept it without question.

Talked to my mum about this and she says it's ok as the Olympics won't go ahead (not sure what her source for this is beyond 'trust me, I'm Japanese' but googling in Japanese suggests it very likely IS going ahead)...what do we do? Let people see it for themselves? Protest?

Sure, at the end of the day this isn't the end of the world, but I keep thinking about the women who trained so hard and had their dreams shattered by someone who waltzed in with no background in the sport in middle age (name me a female athlete who did that in any sport and wiped the floor with everyone else, please) and everyone just let it happen, even saying we should cheer it on.

RAGE

Two decades. I think the girls he beat last time were in their early 20s and from underprivileged backgrounds in Samoa. I bet most of the women competing will be under 30. It makes me so angry that this idiocy is allowed

afaik, the BBC plan at present is not to discuss it.

www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/apr/10/weightlifter-laurel-hubbards-career-ended-by-injury-at-commonwealth-games

Ultimately the authorities are condoning drug taking in competition, I am very surprised that this hasn't been raised amongst athletes.

I really don't understand why no-one is challenging this properly, I wish male and female athletes would speak out en masse.

I vaguely thought Hubbard had competed in the last Olympics and injured themselves trying for a record. Was that actually a world championship or something?

Thanks to notbad for finding out who has been displaced

DH is furious and informed me that even with lower testosterone this person will still have physical advantage

He has also been spreading the word with his sporty mates

Similarly, if TWAW, and Caitlyn Jenner has always been a woman, that means Caitlyn was a woman when Caitlyn competed at the Olympics in 1976 in the men’s decathlon. So why can’t Laurel be like Caitlyn and compete on the men’s weightlifting team?

Devastating for the women who've sacrificed and trained their guts out for years and years though.

The fucking cheek.

Does that mean that any man with low testosterone can compete in the women's category?

Not any man. Only men who say they're women and they want to compete in the women's category.

I don't know why, but this always pops into my head.

Based on the medical facts that if it is reduced further in men it can cause harm, maybe make them feel sad, even depressed or unsexy!

Oh dear how sad🙄

Poor mens!

I feel sorry for the female competitors who will be disadvantaged by Hubbard’s inclusion but the world needs to see this play out at the Olympics.
The unfairness of allowing biological males to compete in the women’s category will be hard to defend when Hubbard walks off with a medal.

10 nmol/ litre?! Based on what science exactly? Even in women with severe PCOS you usually don't see above 5.

Based on it being very difficult or perhaps even unsafe for TW to keep their testosterone in female range. 🤐