Article on Hubbard in Sunday Times sport 27/6/2021

[WinterIsGone]

I couldn't see this article mentioned here - apologies if it's been posted already. My DH spotted it in The Sunday Times sports section today.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/debates-over-laurel-hubbards-olympic-games-inclusion-must-accept-that-she-has-earned-right-to-compete-z2c7fzcc7

I don't have a share token. Basically, it's by the chief sports writer, David Walsh, who was so critical of Lance Armstrong,

He points out that Hubbard is following the rules, which is true. To quote: "In the interim we should allow Hubbard to compete without rancour. She is painfully shy, does not do interviews and four years have passed since she addressed questions about her situation."

Perhaps over time results will show that trans women weightlifters enjoy a significant advantage, and then it will be up to the IOC to review its guidelines.

How about we wait and ascertain whether there is a significant advantage BEFORE we shove these men into women’s sports? That would be the fair way to do it.

Thanks for sharing, OP. What an arsehole the writer is.

Here it is, what a horrible thing to do, that poor girl.

www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-20460561.html

Basically, it's by the chief sports writer, David Walsh, who was so critical of Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong had his testicles removed, didn't he?

So he could have competed against women too. Wonder if David would think that's okay.

Oh and Hubbard is shy and doesn't do interviews? Think we all know why Hubbard doesn't do interviews - because everyone who saw it would see a man who is competing in the female category.

@allmywhat

I looked up Walsh on Wikipedia. The section under “Controversies” hints at him conforming to a very familiar pattern among ardently pro-trans/ anti-woman men.

Oh, well what a surprise.

Oh but David Walsh was so terrier like when he was asking Lance Armstrong questions re his doping.

We now find out he doesn't have the same sense of injustice about women being cheated out of their places and prizes. His empathy is with the cheater in this case, who probably has more of an advantage than Armstrong had over his competitors.

These men are pricks princes, aren't they?

Oh, right. I see he's putting a good word in for the sexual abuser of young girls.

God, Ireland seems to have become a very happy base for creepy men.

One suspects Hubbard doesn't do interviews because Hubbard has probably got a voice like a Kiwi Barry White.

David Walsh is full on TWAW if I remember. A while ago there was an article on Rugby - remember that one. I commented about men giving away women's rights in sport and he answered that there was a woman at the top of rugby making decisions and that woman was a transwoman - my reply was 'you confirm my point'

Just had a look through Walsh’s previous articles. He seems to have had been close to Pippa York for some time so it’s not unexpected.

Honest to God. A male Individual is pushing women out of sport, completing unfairly, and milking the rules that mean men can shit all over women, and we can't say anything because they're ^shy???

This broke my heart a little bit. I thought his reporting on Armstrong was something really valuable - and I thought his dogged pursuit of the truth in that case was motivated by genuine outrage that this man cheated and cheated and cheated. I thought he actually cared about fair play.

For him, of all sportswriters, to come up with this take on what will surely be recognised as even worse cheating in the years to come, is just truly shocking.

But yeah. He’s clearly a man who can disregard harms done to women and girls when it suits him, a man for whom the importance of fair play is only relevant in men’s sports, not women’s.

It’s a bit of a reversal of the current status quo that on this one topic: you’ve got Sean Ingle at the Guardian writing unexpectedly truthful pieces (unexpected for the Guardian, I mean; I’m not really familiar with Ingle’s body of work) and Walsh at the ST writing a load of misogynistic, hypocritical, weaselly flannel.

So disappointed to find that Walsh is just another man who is falling over himself in his rush to give away women’s rights and women’s sports.

@GNCQ

Also: “I am who I am. I’m not here to change the world. I just want to be me and just do what I do.”

Fine. Be who you are. Do what you do. You can do all of that without shitting all over women at the Olympics.

"I’m not here to change the world" but you are changing the world for women, for the worse.

Also there to snatch prizes off women. Can't win against their own sex, so happy to unfairly win through their male bodied advantage over women.

A body that is not the result of hard work or skill. Just a male body competing against women.