Summer Olympics in Tokyo: First transgender athlete fights for medals

Nine years ago, Laurel Hubbard was still a man. Now she will be the first transgender female athlete to compete in the Olympic Games. But the sports world is divided over the fairness of their participation.

Laurel Hubbard pulls up the 124 kilo weight, lifts it over her head with outstretched arms and lets it fall again with relief. At the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the 43-year-old will be the first open transgender athlete.

This is a historic moment for Kereyn Smith, head of the New Zealand Olympic Committee: “She is our first female Olympian to change her identity from male to female.” In 2012, Hubbard changed her gender – and her name: from Gavin to Laurel.

Advantages in “speed, endurance, strength” for men

Critics say their participation in the games is not fair. “Because men have performance advantages that are based on their biological gender. They outperform us in speed, endurance, strength,” says Katherine Deves, spokeswoman for the group “Save Women’s Sport Australasia”:

Just picking out the testosterone factor is misleading. We neglect the anatomy: the faster twitch muscles, the larger organs. Men recover faster, have stronger bones, have no tilted pelvis and are therefore less prone to knee and ankle injuries. The list goes on and on.

New Zealand Olympic Weightlifting President Richie Patterson said, “We know there are a lot of questions about fairness in transgender athletes, but I want to remind all of us that Laurel has all of the required criteria.”

Testosterone levels are checked regularly

Therefore it is a fair competition, also say sports sociologists. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) set several criteria for the participation of transgender athletes in 2015. Among other things, the change of identity must be at least four years ago and the testosterone level in the blood must have been below ten nanomoles per liter for at least one year. This value is checked regularly.

The testosterone level is currently the best criterion, explains Professor Yannis Pitsiladis, member of the IOC’s medical and scientific commission. At some point, you might be able to add further values. “We just need data from people transitioning in elite sports to understand physiology, anatomy and so on,” says Pitsiladis.

Too little is known about the effects of gender reassignment

Long distance runner Joanna Harper has had a sex reassignment surgery herself. Today she advises the Olympic Committee. She said on US television: “Nine months after my hormone therapy, I ran twelve percent slower – that’s the difference between serious male athletes and serious female athletes.”

Other athletes report that they have lost a lot of muscle mass as a result of hormone therapy. When asked whether this would be a fair competition, Harper replied: “The absolute answer to this question is not yet certain. We need a lot more data before we can make an absolute statement about it.”

The World Association for Sports Medicine suggests halving the testosterone limit again. The IOC is discussing the proposal and wants to comment on it after the Tokyo Games.

“I just want to be me”

To Hubbard, the hype around her person seems a bit much at times. Actually, she would like to concentrate only on her sport, she says in one of her seldom interviews.

I am who I am. I am not here to change the world. I just wanna be me And do what I do.

She started lifting weights because it was a male sport. Because she hoped to become more manly, to feel more manly. But that didn’t happen. “People believe what they believe – and when you show them something that may be new or different from what they know, it is instinctive to first reject it.”

At the Olympic Games she will compete in the super heavyweight division. It doesn’t matter to her supporters whether she wins gold or not. The fact that she is allowed to compete as a woman against other women is a victory for her.