Open unabashed cheating
Another successful theft of athletic glory:
Kiwi weightlifter Laurel Hubbard has won gold at the Pacific Games in Samoa…
Hubbard, a transgender athlete who is trying to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, won gold medals at Apia’s Faleata Sports Complex to become the Oceania senior champion, the Commonwealth senior champion, and the Pacific Games senior champion.
The 41-year-old won with a total lift of 268kg in the women’s 87kg category on Saturday. Samoans Feagaiga Stowers and Iuniana Sipaia took home silver and bronze with respective lifts of 261kg and 255kg.
In other words a 41-year-old man competed against women in weight-lifting and thus stole a gold medal from Feagaiga Stowers and a silver medal from Iuniana Sipaia. And the story carefully says nothing about that – the story carefully pretends it’s all perfectly normal and fair and what everyone wants.
Hubbard wants to be on New Zealand’s Olympics team in 2020. These competitions are a necessary path to that. If Hubbard gets a place on the team that will mean a woman loses her place to him.
https://twitter.com/nzolympics/status/1149879157465108483
The 439 people talking about this are not doing so with warm congratulations for “Laurel” Hubbard.
Many are pointing out the non-celebratory demeanor of Stowers and Sipaia. The woman who should have been there for winning the bronze is not shown.
A little perspective c/o dates and numbers.
The last time ze won anything before transitioning, was as a Junior. Oddly, none of the articles mention when this was, what the weight category was, or what the lift was. However, the current New Zealand Junior Men’s record in the 81kg category is 124 Kg Snatch, 151 Kg Clean and Jerk, ie a total of 268 Kg
http://olympicweightlifting.nz/national-records/
That’s a lower weight category and a bigger lift.
By appropriate age/weight category, the current New Zealand Men’s records are 136 Snatch, 155 Clean and Jerk, for a total lift of 301 Kg.
The mind is a tricky thing, particularly when pitted against matter.
Perhaps it’s the hormones that make math so hard? ; >
DoH!
The Junior Men’s total is 275 kg, ze won category in question with 268
I appreciate the perspective of the athlete the other day who said that the only viable choice is to smile on the podium as if everything is OK even if inside you feel completely ripped off because you don’t want to embarrass your team or country, etc. But I must say this reaction is much more gratifying. Good for them.
Ktron, I’m not sure what your deal is. Are you actually saying that since these lifts don’t approach men’s records that Hubbard is fine to compete in women’s divisions? Or am I misunderstanding, perhaps due to my hormones?
What ktron forgot to mention was that until this event, the N.Z.Women’s (i.e. the actual category he ((not ‘ze’)) competed in) 87kg record was 99kg and 121 kg, for a total of 220kg. Mr. Cheat lifted 268kg. Well, what’s a mere 48kg, eh?
Once again we have a man who can’t cut it competing against other men, saying the magic words “I am Woman” and becoming an all-conquering record-breaker.
So, if we’re understanding ktron right, ktron thinks since Hubbard’s lift total is 33 kg under the men’s record, it’s OK for Hubbard to compete in the women’s division, but apparently Hubbard’s lift total being 48 kg over the women’s record is irrelevant.
Yes, the mind is indeed a very tricky thing.
The tweet got deleted. Hmmm…
How can this possibly be happening? This is dystopian.
Skeletor – I clearly did not write that comment very well.
I meant to present the numbers Hubbard most recently won with, contrasted with A) the category he last won in prior to transition, and B) the category he would have to compete in if he wasn’t allowed to pretend he was female – in both instances he falls well short of the mark. In either of those instances his current performance would fail.
I was trying to underline (apparently very ineffectively) why Hubbard’s ego requires him to pretend he’s a woman – because if he competed as what he is, he wouldn’t even qualify for New Zealand team status, never mind Pacific or Commonwealth medals.
“prior to transition”
Another instance of my poor conceptualization of the problem.
I have no idea if he just “identified”, or if he had his . . . cut off, or he he just “woke” one morning to “know” he was a “woman” and followed up with a few injections for sh’ts ‘n’ giggles (I suspect my mentioning that is a serious thought crime and in the trans-world, may even be classed as battery – ie skipping assault all together)
I do have a pretty clear idea that he’s another under-achieving male “athlete” in the Rachel McKinnon mould . . .
You CLEARLY do not know who Rachel McKinnon is!
I saw an ACLU FB post, a placard declaring trans people belong in sports, with a quote from one of the male high school athletes who took a medal in a girls’ event. The comments I looked at were all in opposition to the ACLU position, I was pleased to see.
Re #10
I think ktron does know. McKinnon is a cyclist who was not at the top ranks competing against men, and is thus “under-achieving”. He had to identify as a woman and compete in the women’s divisions to get on the podium.
I think ktron’s initial comment was a bit unclear; it was taken by some to be supportive of Hubbard, but has now been clarified as a criticism.
Ktron, good questions re what “transition” means in this case. It’s clear that hormone treatments were involved, but surgery of any sort, who knows.
I was discussing this with a female friend today. She is a career person and a keen and competitive sportswoman. It was clear that she was perturbed, but at the same time she didn’t want to throw the underdog under a bus (New Zealanders tend to identify with the underdog and try to be ‘fair’, almost as a reflex). The best she could say was that she didn’t blame trans athletes, but rather the authorities that set the rules that allow this.
I’m not quite so charitable. I pointed out that if they wanted to compete, the could lawfully still do so in the men’s, or in some sports, open category. In any case, the rules have been changed as a result of sustained lobbying by trans athletes and their supporters. This displacement of women athletes is not an accident that trans athletes are innocent bystanders in.
It may be a matter of selective reporting, but it seems as if all the heroic trans-pioneers are competing in sports where the gender gap is most pronounced. Where the cheap victory is most likely.
Have any trans-women turned up on the podiums after a marathon? And in the more extreme endurance races, the advantage would be even smaller.
“but at the same time she didn’t want to throw the underdog under a bus” – see that’s the thing. Since when are men underdogs compared to women? Since NEVER until oh look, how convenient, if they say they are trans women then suddenly magically they achieve underdog status, despite still having the many physical advantages over women.