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When weightlifter Laurel Hubbard was named to the New Zealand team for the Tokyo Olympics this week, she took the weight off many shoulders, while becoming the millstone around the neck of several others – quite literally and figuratively.
The 43-year-old’s journey thus far has been a roller-coaster ride. And when she was confirmed as the first transgender athlete to compete at the Olympics and the oldest lifter in Tokyo, she hit a new high: in terms of both professional achievement and controversies.
Hubbard will compete in the women's 87kg category, but her selection has polarised international opinion over whether trans athletes hold an unfair advantage over other women.
Hubbard lifted a total of 285kg to meet the Tokyo qualification mark, and enters the Games ranked fourth in her category.
In a statement issued by the New Zealand Olympic Committee on Monday, Hubbard was quoted as saying:
"I am grateful and humbled by the kindness and support that has been given to me by so many New Zealanders."
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has had an official inclusion policy for trans athletes as far back as 2003, a directive that has evolved significantly with the changing times and attitudes.
The story of a comeback
Hubbard's story is unconventional in every manner possible.
Competing as Gavin Hubbard, her birth name, Hubbard set national records in the junior division. When she stopped competing in 2001 she was one of the rising stars of the sport in New Zealand.
Merely surviving as someone like her was too much of a weight to bear, she has said on record while explaining her decision.
"… it just became too much to bear ... just the pressure of trying to fit into a world that perhaps wasn't really set up for people like myself'."
But once she had found her place in the world after transitioning eight years ago, Hubbard returned to her first love. Quite unbelievably, she competed in her first international event as late as 2017 and her roster of achievements has been very impressive.
She won silver at the 2017 Anaheim World Championships and back-to-back gold at the Commonwealth Championships in 2017 and 2019. Hubbard also distinguished herself with gold at the 2020 Rome World Cup.
Hubbard has an unfair advantage, say many
Though the IOC changed its rules to allow transwomen to compete in the discipline if their testosterone levels were below a certain level, which Hubbard's is, experts say someone who has undergone puberty as a male will always have an inherent advantage over other females because of better bone and muscle density.
Belgian weightlifter Anna Van Bellingen, who also competes in the 87kg category, said as early as last month that letting Hubbard compete in the Olympics will be like a 'bad joke' while at the same time voicing her support for the transgender community.
The pitch has been queered further by the fact that advocacy groups for women's rights such as Save Women's Sport Australasia have also spoken out against the unprecedented selection.
Some have even called it a dark moment in New Zealand's history and the history of women's sport in general. They argue that Hubbard has been given the spot belonging to another woman athlete not bestowed with the former's unique advantages due to matters of biology.
The politics of fairness
We live in troubled times and issues of representation of minorities and the historically discriminated are in the public imagination more than at any other time in human history.
As New Zealand Olympic Committee chief executive Kereyn Smith said post the selection of Hubbard:
“We acknowledge that gender identity in sport is a highly sensitive and complex issue requiring a balance between human rights and fairness on the field of play.”
That sport, like most other aspects of human life, has been a breeding ground of discrimination is no secret. Now, when the push for fairness for the marginalised has finally arrived, new conundrums have arisen. No one can deny the rightful claim of women athletes of having their rightful places under the sun after years of battle against the patriarchal structures that have dictated every aspect of their lives.
But where does that leave the far-more-marginalised trans people in the arena of sport? Should they have a separate category of their own? How do we fit them into the mainstream of sports? The answers to these complex questions need to be found out. till then, the remarkable achievement of Laurel Hubbard needs to be celebrated even while putting it in the context of the larger debate of fairness in sports.
