To ask why people this Laurel the weightlifter will win?

[PollyPopa]

She's biologically male obviously but also hasn't got as good a personal best as some of the other (biologically female) competitors

Just wondering, that's all! I don't agree she should be in that competition either by the way but nothing to say she will win since her personal best isn't as great as some of the others

@VladmirsPoutine

In my experience when I speak to others about this they seem to understand the (blindingly obvious) issues but fear repercussions so would rather not speak about it or even post about it on social media. The end result really might be someone screen-shotting your tweet and forwarding it to your employer with an e-mail along the lines of

"Dear company X, do you condone your employee Ms.X making publicly transphobic comments online? Is this in line with your company's values."

This. And the further down the food chain women are, the less able they are to challenge the removal of sex segregated spaces and awards for female achievement being presented to male advantaged individuals.

The women most disadvantaged by employers rushing into inclusivity for one group without an Equalities Impact Assessment are always those already disadvantaged.

Its unsurprising that women then fear to speak out in many places and rely on relatively anonymous forums.

Laurel might not win but you can bet in eight years time, there will be biological men winning the women's events. Across the US there's biological men already taking advantage of their biology and winning women's sports.
Unless changes are made we'll only have gymnastics.

Is it today?

Hope he doesn't burst his puddings!

@BlueLobelia

Just looked at todays BBC Olympic schedule and they do not seem to be covering it (on BBC One anyway). Does anyone know?

I know that a pp suggested we watch it on youtube but if it is on the regular channel then more likely to expose people to whom the issues are brand new.

It will be live on Discovery

BBC are only allowed to show the Olympics on 2 channels so have limited coverage and focus more on live competitions with British athletes.
It will be shown at some time today on the BBC.

The news channel have just reported on it. They said they will be watching it.
Also had fallon saying it was fair as no physical differences.

littledrummergirl I'm not surprised. This Fallon seems quite hard of thinking and to have some misogynist tendencies. I'm not a great sports fan and happy to be corrected here. I know boxers trash talk each other, it's part of the game. However I've never heard a male boxer rejoicing about breaking another male boxer's skull during a fight such as Fallon did about a woman opponent. And tried to make it some sort of political victory rather than a male born adult beating up a woman and breaking her skull.

@littledrummergirl

The news channel have just reported on it. They said they will be watching it. Also had fallon saying it was fair as no physical differences.

well, i can think of a couple of fairly obvious physical differences straight off the bat.

seriously though, heightwise LH is the tallest competitor by a distance & presumably has correspondingly larger hands, feet, wrist width, bone thickness, etc etc etc.

As far as I am aware this athlete has undergone no surgery but has fulfilled the iOC rules by lowering testosterone levels.

"Those who transition from male to female are eligible to compete in the
female category under the following conditions:
2.1. The athlete has declared that her gender identity is female. The
declaration cannot be changed, for sporting purposes, for a minimum
of four years.
2.2. The athlete must demonstrate that her total testosterone level in serum
has been below 10 nmol/L for at least 12 months prior to her first
competition" IOC guidelines

Interesting that there is only a requirement to say that you are a woman for 4years and then it is quite acceptable to go back to living and competing as a man[confused

I think LH is competing at 11:50am - so says the Indy. Hope someone uploads it to Youtube soon after. I'm assuming the Beeb won't show it? And don't you need a subscription to Discovery??

Thanks for timing. Sadly I do not have Discovery so will keep an eye out on the Beeb otherwise youtube.

You can see the first results on the official Tokyo Olympics website or app.
There is a GB athlete competing as well, Emily Jade Campbell.

olympics.com/tokyo-2020/olympic-games/en/results/weightlifting/result-women-s--plus-87kg-fnl-a00100-.htm

Must be soul destroying for the other competitors as well as for the thousands of upcoming young female athletes who will probably be wondering whether it's worth all the years of hard work to potentially be stymied at the last minute. But as long as this one person is happy it's all good .....

Conflicted about this. It would be an outrage if he won a medal. But if he fares badly the tras will say ' There - TW have no advantages , its perfectly fair you are all mean nasty bigots blah ....' Whereas he is decades older than most of the competition

Eurosport 2 just starting. Channel 413 on my bt box.

it's possible to watch on a [i'm told] popular hooky sports streams website called hesgoals, on the #4 olympic stream.

Here's a link:

www.hesgoal.com/news/83364/Olympic_Games_Tokyo_----_CH_4.html

The first discipline will be the snatch, not sure whether that's a strong suit for Ms H.

Conflicted about this. It would be an outrage if he won a medal

Its already been an outrage without an Olympic medal. LH has displaced minority and disadvantaged women from the team and medal positions in other competitions.

I'm sure LH's millionaire white father being a key figure in the sport has nothing to do with the decision processes in the sport

[quote VladmirsPoutine]Here's a link:

www.hesgoal.com/news/83364/Olympic_Games_Tokyo_----_CH_4.html[/quote]
Thanks for that. Wathcing now.

This was mentioned on my local radio sports broadcast earlier.

Frustratingly, they made it sound like Hubbard was a woman who just happened to be trans. Also stated that the IOC required trans athletes to fulfil certain requirements before competing. Without actually stating what those requirements are, or that they are complete bullshit.

The mainstream media just will not report on this truthfully. Perpetuating delusion.

@lightnesspixie

And sorry am I missing something here? I'm all for trans inclusion generally - but if a woman is trans then at least insist they have had gender reassignment surgery before letting them compete with natural born women (I refuse to say cis) - not just reduce their testosterone. If you want to be a woman then get your tackle removed. I don't understand why some (read most) trans women keep themselves intact. To me that doesn't make sense.

The problem is what is considered 'trans' has expanded so much in the last few years. Simply declaring yourself a women is enough now, no surgery or hormones required.

As for why they keep their genitals intact, surely that is so they can masturbate to their new brave and stunning identity (vom).

As for the 'using preferred pronouns is a kindness' poster - no, it isn't, it's capitulation to state something I don't believe in.
They are perfectly entitled to create their own identity, but other people shouldn't be forced to go along with it.

It is gaslighting pure and simple. And the fact that there is anger and aggression to those who don't comply tells you this is not about decency or kindness, it is a power play.

LH's first lift 120 kg and it looked like a deliberate chuck to me. Plus LH smiled as they walked off.

So that's the strategy then.

the British girl has fantastic hair.

what's left of LH's rapidly receding barnet looks OK too.

Have to say I am in utter awe of these women. Such strength!

Might become a bit of a secret weighlifting fan.

And LH chucked it again so that seems to be it (unless I am mistaken).

Plus again a big smile.