Laurel Hubbard is the beginning of the end of women’s sports

[steakandcheeseplease]

Not sure if another thread has been started on this. This really is the end. I spent ten years being a sports coach to children. I know males and females bodies are physically different and behave different in sport. This is an absolute tragedy for our young aspiring female athletes. A mediocre male weightlifter rising to the top of the womens ranks purely because of his physiology. Stealing a place that is rightly a females. This is my actual WTF moment.

[https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/laurel-hubbard-is-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-women-s-sports]

EmbarrassingAdmissions

Majorfluff
Think there is a couple more trans athletes going to Tokyo.

9 known, iirc.

So that’s 9 women who have now missed out.

@ItsAllGoingToBeFine

boysvswomen.com/#/ is a good website to look at visualisations of how elite female athletes compare to high school boys across various sports.

Thanks for sharing. Really useful website and powerful illustration of the difference in performance. I'd just been thinking someone should do something like this!

timeisnotaline

Hubbard competes for New Zealand, not Australia, population is less than half a million, not sure what proportion are females old enough to compete in the Olympics; but fondofbeetles is a scientist, so I'll trust her stats.

Money and notoriety I guess

Hubbard's father is a billionaire. A white, billionaire's child, who has spent most of their life living as a privileged (in the real sense, not the bullshit BLM sense), white male. Has pushed out of competition young, indigenous women, whose chances of another crack at the Olympics may be slim to none. Motives? What sort of person in their position would do this to those women? Someone with Hubbard's resources could be the first trans woman to do any number of things - hell, book a place into space with Elon Musk - if they wanted the fame/notoriety. But no, they trample on the hopes and dreams of disadvantaged females of colour. I know what I think the motives are.

@zafferana
I think la lot of people - my DH thought TWAW is just men who want to wear women’s clothes make up and live as a women and don’t really pose any meaningful threat to women .

When its seen in the way of sports especially it seems to hit that little switch that goes WTF WTF the sports thing is something men can get and understand as it’s something they relate to .
He’s now asking me how many women who want to be men try to get into men’s sport 😂😂

@UppityPuppity

EmbarrassingAdmissions

Majorfluff
Think there is a couple more trans athletes going to Tokyo.

9 known, iirc.

So that’s 9 women who have now missed out.

It seems that countries are more bothered about bringing home medals rather than fairness for women.

Finally a sensible piece from the guardian on this ..

www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2021/jun/22/by-conflating-gender-and-sex-we-undermine-sporting-competition

I read about it this morning. Totally unacceptable. And unfair.

This is where I saw the number 9:

www.outsports.com/2021/5/12/22428082/trans-olympic-athlete-tokyo-ioc-paralympic

@UppityPuppity

EmbarrassingAdmissions

Majorfluff
Think there is a couple more trans athletes going to Tokyo.

9 known, iirc.

So that’s 9 women who have now missed out.

9 Do you know who the others are?

www.skysports.com/other-sports/news/11095/12311168/sky-sports-and-bbc-sport-stars-unite-to-fight-against-online-abuse-in-hate-wont-win-video

In the light of well-intentioned campaigns like this, I am concerned about how media commentators will be constrained when talking about the participation of Hubbard and other male athletes taking female Olympic places, with dissenting viewpoints being potentially framed as 'hate' rather than a desire for fair play.

X post!

Ted, pop of NZ is 5 million,

Nah I think it's turned a lot of heads and might do the opposite. We can hope. Lots of people talking about it being ridiculous on reddit which I was surprised about, and challenging those with other views with reasonable arguments. Someone posted along the lines of I hope she purposefully makes sure not to win anything so that it doesn't prove their point, to which someone said oh the point that they're right.

Have you seen the female Chinese relay team?

Oops! Not less than half a million. But Samoa is much smaller and the young women Hubbard will be competing against will definitely have had none of the lifelong privileges enjoyed by Hubbard.

NB - I have no doubt that there will be some athletes in football teams or other team sports (eg, cycling) who are not known at present.

9 Trans athletes. ALL born male competing as female. Says it all!

I used to love watching the Olympics, not anymore.

OMG look at 'Valentina' Petrillo - he has male pattern baldness and what looks a bulge in his shorts and yet he might be competing as a woman. It's a fucking disgrace

@NewlyGranny

Ted, pop of NZ is 5 million,

You're right, thank you, sorry also to timeisnotaline . I don't doubt Fondofbeetles/Dr Emma Hilton though, she's done the research into transwomen in women's sport, so those stats will be evidence based I believe.

9 males taking away an opportunity for females.

There's no transmen on that list.

If genderfeelz are so inclusive why exactly is that?

@Wegobshite

My DH who isn’t been very aware of the TWAW debate is shouting at the tv “ He He “ Me & the dog thought he was watching some weird interactive tv show . Then I realised he was angrily shouting at the tv where they are talking about LH competing in the Olympics - My DH is shouting at the tv that “it’s a he not a she” - he even said he noticed that LH armpits has more hair than he has and he is struggling to get his head around this how he is able to compete in the woman’s category 😂😂

His brain is really hurting him at the moment .

As a male who has competed in high level MMA & boxing for many years he’s been in a right strop since watching this on tv today mumbling WTF is going on and he is suddenly starting to understand what I’ve been telling him for ages .
Previously he was well if they aren’t hurting anyone why are you getting so annoyed - now it’s like a little lights gone on in his head and he actually gets what the problem is .

I can only hope that a lot of people who have felt similar to my DH get their lightbulb moment

Same here with my husband-the pennies dropping about the impact it has on women and girls .

Its ridiculous.
What's to stop teams intentionally recruiting trans women en-masse in the hopes of building a 'female' team that can't possibly be beaten?
If there is no rule on biology, what is the actual point in segregating ANY sport now? Why not just have a huge free for all?

It is literally the end of a level playing field.
Looking forward to the first 100m sprinter trans man who beats a natal man though. Oh wait, that will never happen. Wonder why.

Whilst its crap that this has to happen - I do think that this will be one of the pivotal moment in getting the attention of all the Men Who Are Not Like That.

And this will never get the sunlight it deserves until it reaches something like Wimbledon. One can hope? (apart from the fact that it will take away a deserving place for a woman, maybe we need to see this farce being played out with the eyes of the word watching).

James Smith, the PT guy, has put up a great Facebook post about this and the unfairness. Impressed!