Sat 4 Mar 2017 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Another glbti glass ceiling with a transgender weightlifter being selected to represent New Zealand as a competitor in the Australian International weightlifting competition. Laurel Hubbard, 39, will compete in the 90kg+ category in which she is the top-ranked female lifter in the country. She now stands a good chance of being selected to compete in next year's Commonwealth Games, according to the president of Olympic Weightlifting NZ, Garry Marshall. Marshall is reported as acknowledging that following Hubbard's selection a number of other female lifters had raised some issues but said the official policies of the International Weightlifting Federation and the International Olympic Committee, to which the New Zealand body subscribes, do not differentiate between cis-women and trans women. Selection guidelines include recommendations that athletes who transition from male to female must demonstrate that their total testosterone level has been below 10 nanomoles for at least twelve months prior to selection. Marshal says Hubbard competed for a long time as as man and that her strength has remained following her transition. he says there is no "concrete evidence" that this has conferred advantages on Hubbard but if there were his organisation would act on them. However, a another woman lifter, Tracey Lambrechs, says she had to drop 17kg in bodyweight to qualify for a lower weight division after Hubbard qualified in the division she, Lambrechs, represented New Zealand in at the Rio Olympics. She says she was at first angry and upset at Hubbard's selection but is now trying to take a positive approach to her competitive future.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 4th March 2017 - 7:49pm