Laurel Hubbard to go to Tokyo

[Biscuitsanddoombar]

Not a surprise and hopefully it’ll open some eyes about the utter ridiculousness of allowing someone who is male to compete against women in weightlifting

www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/may/05/trans-weightlifter-laurel-hubbard-set-to-make-history-at-tokyo-olympics

This is grossly unfair.
The only positive I can take from it is that the sunlight cast on this event will reach many people and will almost certainly bring a lot of them to that place were apparently not allowed to name now.

So being a woman is just about testoterone levels now then? Not something you can identify as? Do we all need blood tests to see if we are a woman or not. It's all very complicated. I'm just sad about there being no professional female sports any more really.

Our awkward issue here is that I don't think Hubbard is elite in their biological sex category,

Hubbard would be classed as male elite from that table (lifting more than 256kg at 90kg bodyweight), and Hubbard's performance is median among other males competing at world level in their age group.

But there's still some way between being merely "elite" (ie qualifying at world level) and "winning the Olympics".

I hope Laurel Hubbard wins! I really do. And I hope that it makes the front page of every newspaper around the world. I want this to be front and centre in everyone’s minds. It is the only way things will change.

Is there anything we can do with IOC or has the ship totally sailed to make them consider their policy going forwards? Letters? Protest?

Huge banners with “Laura Hubbard CHEAT CHEAT CHEAT”

@NotTerfNorCis

Sport is about physical strength, stamina, speed and agility. Biological sex matters. It's ridiculous to categorise athletes based on 'gender identity'.

It astonishes me that anyone could support this.

By categorising athletes by 'gender identity' they are saying that males can compete in the female category if those males declare that they have a 'lady brain'. In sport. Which is primarily about how well their bodies perform.

Do the IOC think we have two categories for sports because half the population have 'lady brains'?

@NecessaryScene

Our awkward issue here is that I don't think Hubbard is elite in their biological sex category,

Hubbard would be classed as male elite from that table (lifting more than 256kg at 90kg bodyweight), and Hubbard's performance is median among other males competing at world level in their age group.

But there's still some way between being merely "elite" (ie qualifying at world level) and "winning the Olympics".

I think Hubbard may weigh more than that. If Hubbard was in their biological sex category, Hubbard would presumably be in the 109kg and over category, which is the heaviest category for male athletes in weightlifting, whereas the women's category tops out at 87kg and over.

In 2017:

Weighing in at 131kg, 9kg more than Sipaia and 41kg more than South Australia’s Carly Allen, Hubbard had to wait 52 minutes for her first crack as the session’s 14 other competitors all had their three snatch lifts at a lower weight than what Hubbard’s first - 118kg.

The wait did nothing to ease her nerves. Hubbard ate in to her allotted time far more than anyone before, her arms shaking visibly as she gripped the bar for her first lift.

www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/more-sports/laurel-hubbard-wins-female-90kg-division-at-weightliftings-australian-international/news-story/cd4a5fa012eb9a5ceb0281faceea5c7a

Here is the figures for a 130kg male
Beginner 145kg
Novice 183kg
Intermediate 228kg
Advanced 277kg
Elite 328kg

For the Olympics (and all womens sporting events from today) two winners lists need to be created:

1. The cheaters Charter list.
2. The real winners list.

Both lists need to be shared far and wide.

I think Hubbard may weigh more than that. If Hubbard was in their biological sex category, Hubbard would presumably be in the 109kg and over category, which is the heaviest category for male athletes in weightlifting, whereas the women's category tops out at 87kg and over.

Oh, whoops. I was making the mistake of reading all the weight categories as "under XXX". (I've got no idea about human weights in kilograms, so didn't stop to do a sanity check...)

That does explain what seemed to me to be quite a small gap between that table's "Elite" and Hilton's graph of 35+ performance. I assumed they were being rather generous on what they called "Elite".

Right, so that makes Hubbard "Advanced", along with most of the male 35+ world competitors. Only the very best 35+ males are still "Elite".

There is also an ‘alternate’ which I believe is an athlete in reserve if one of the team can’t compete, in the the US BMX team.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9701947/BMX-rider-Chelsea-Wolfe-Team-USAs-transgender-Olympian.html

So a US female has been denied a reserve place too.

That is my conclusion too.

I do like how the 2017 article I quoted tried to flag the fairness issue by referencing the weigh-ins. You only pick up on it if you have a pre-existing personal interest in picking things up and putting them down again, but it was a reasonable assumption that anyone reading articles about international weightlifting competitions did!

I hope this peaks the world but Hubbard’s participation in the Commonwealth games and Pacific games didn’t so I’m fearful it won’t.

The comments sections in media here in NZ are of course locked down to ensure nothing negative gets through.

It’s the fourth most read item on the BBC website.

Really hope the audience indulge in some very audible booing when Hubbard competes and stands to get their medal.

Where did the other thread go?

I also think it won't be enough. It will wake up a lot of ordinary people but the people in charge seem determined to forge ahead. Nobody cared to do anything when the doping was happening decades ago and athletes like Sharron Davies were severely disadvantaged.

It will probably take a lot more damage being done to women, it will take whole countries and their teams refusing to attend in future games, it will take loss of sponsorship by companies unwilling to partake and it will take people refusing to attend or watch.

The problem is I'm not confident that's how it will play out, I don't know if enough people care about women. What if the outcome is that other countries seek out mediocre males instead and everyone is drip fed until it's normalised and by the 2030s it's become standard that the two competing categories are male and mediocre male (with a smattering of women to uphold the pretence).

Fair Play For Women: "We'll be on BBC News channel at 10.30 this morning discussing whether its fair that male-born trans person Laurel Hubbard will be competing in the female weight lifting category at the Olympics."

Fair Play for Women on BBC news channel discussing this now

Excellent interview with Nicola Williams from Fair Play for Women

i.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/114420264/samoan-pm-tuilaepa-sailele-malielegaoi-hits-out-at-laurel-hubbard

I missed the first minute. Did she get introduced as Doctor Nicola Williams? Her title wasn't used when the interviewer bade her goodbye.

@PurgatoryOfPotholes

I missed the first minute. Did she get introduced as Doctor Nicola Williams? Her title wasn't used when the interviewer bade her goodbye.

No she wasn’t, and it didn’t say doctor on her name when it came up on the screen beneath her

Can someone remind me of the names of the Pacific islander/s who are missing a space because of Hubbard? Thanks

@LittleRa

Excellent interview with Nicola Williams from Fair Play for Women

She’s amazing

Disgraceful

That was a great interview with dr nic

She said things which I don’t think the bbc would actually broadcast 6 months ago