Laurel Hubbard Is Out Of Olympic Women's Weightlifting Competition

Laurel Hubbard has been eliminated from the women's super heavyweight weightlifting competition.

The Kiwi became the first transgender athlete to compete in a different gender category to that which they were born, but she was unable to make a snatch and subsequently knocked out of the competition.

Her inclusion in the event came after the IOC made amendments to its qualifying guidelines in 2015, allowing trans athletes to compete in women's events depending on their testosterone levels.

Hubbard competed as a male weightlifter before transitioning in 2012 and returning to the sport in 2017.

Prior to the competition, South Island-based 43-year-old Hubbard applauded the IOC for allowing her to make history.

She said: "The Olympic Games are a global celebration of our hopes, our ideals and our values.

"I commend the IOC for its commitment to making sport inclusive and accessible."

Following her selection for the games, Hubbard said she was 'grateful and humbled by the kindness and support that has been given to me by so many New Zealanders'.

She continued: "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 [love] carried me through the darkness.

"The last eighteen months has shown us all that there is strength in kinship, in community, and in working together towards a common purpose. The mana [power/honour] of the silver fern comes from all of you and I will wear it with pride."

Hubbard is ranked 15th in the world and has also become the third oldest lifter in Olympic history.

Addressing the controversy surrounding her inclusion before the competition, Joanna Harper - an IOC advisor from Loughborough University - told Sky News: "Yes, Laurel has advantages - but within this group of 14 women that she is competing against, Laurel is probably somewhere in the middle of the pack.

"She could theoretically finish anywhere from third to 14th - and isn't that sort of the definition of fair competition that a lot of things could potentially happen?"

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: New Zealand, SPORT, olympics, transgender

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

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