Laurel Hubbard will become the first transgender athlete to compete at the Olympic Games. After being selected for the New Zealand national weightlifting team, she has officially made history and reached many headlines.
Hubbard is set to compete in the women’s super-heavyweight 87 kg weightlifting category, where she qualified in May after a rule change. This August, the 43-year-old will represent her home country as the oldest lifter at the Games.
Before transitioning in 2013, she had competed in men’s weightlifting competitions, where she had been quite successful. Afterward, she continued to compete until 2018 when she suffered a grave injury. Now that she got better, Hubbard will compete for the first time in years at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
“When I broke my arm at the Commonwealth Games three years ago, I was advised that my sporting career had likely reached its end. But your support, your encouragement, and your aroha carried me through the darkness,” she said, expressing her feelings with the Indigenous Maori word for “love.”
Transgender athletes have been eligible to take part in the Olympic Games since 2015 when the International Olympic Committee updated the guidelines. The new rules specified they were allowed to compete as women as long as their testosterone levels were below 10 nanomoles per liter 12 months before competing. However, no athletes had been selected until now.
Since her participation was announced, Hubbard has received lots of love from people around the world. Among them was the New Zealand government, which expressed its full support for the athlete. “We are proud of her as we are of all our athletes, and will be supporting her all the way,” Sports Minister Grant Robertson said.
Bibliography:
BBC News Staff (2021, June 21) Laurel Hubbard: First transgender athlete to compete at Olympics [Photograph] BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57549653
Ingle, S. (2021, June 21) Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard will be first trans athlete to compete at Olympics. The Guardian.
Lewis, S. (2021, June 21) New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard to become first openly transgender athlete to compete at Olympics. CBS news.
Reuters (2021, June 21) NZ weightlifter Hubbard to become first transgender athlete to compete at Games. Reuters.
Todd, C. (2021, June 21) Laurel Hubbard Will Be the First Transgender Athlete to Compete in the Olympics [Photograph] Self. https://www.self.com/story/laurel-hubbard-first-transgender-athlete-olympics
Yeung, J. (2021, June 21) New Zealand weightlifter to become first transgender athlete at Olympic Games. CNN.