The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games started on Friday July 23, 2021 with fireworks illuminating half empty stadium and a moment of silence to honor those lost to COVID-19, with a nod to Japanese tradition. However, the major talking point is Laurel Hubbard, first transgender athlete in Olympic history.

Laurel, whose original name was Gavin, completed her conversion at the age of 35, and has passed the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) criteria of eligibility in women’s weightlifting, which was introduced in 2015.

The 43-year-old New Zealand weightlifter will be participating in the +87 kilos category, the highest female weight classification.

Meanwhile, Hubbard will have a strong chance of competing for the podium in Tokyo, at least for the bronze medal, and her participation has had a mixed reception, such as criticism from one one of her opponents, Anna Van Bellinghem.

“This particular situation is unfair to the sport and to the athletes,” Van Bellinghem said.

Moreover, Van Bellinghem’s viewpoint was echoed by Constantino Iglesias, the president of the Spanish federation, “Honestly, it’s not fair at all.”

“You have to accept the IOC’s rules, but it is a topic that is not resolved and must be studied in the future. I have seen [Hubbard] when she was competing against men.

“She certainly wouldn’t have qualified for the male competition, but she now has the chance to win a medal,” Iglesias said.
Iglesia

However, Hubbard has also been praised by many, with Spanish Olympian Josue Brachi stating that her participation will help to overcome the stigma of transgender people in weightlifting.

“[Hubbard’s] participation will be good because if she competes it is because she can, she will manage to change the notion of this sport having always been considered a male sport, of brutes, and now she will remove many stigmas that were associated with it.” Brachi said.
Brachi

Meanwhile, Spanish weightlifter Alba Sanchez doesn’t believe that Hubbard does carry an unfair advantage over her other competitors.

“I don’t like how people are saying that [Hubbard] is a man and that she has more strength and must compete with men. That is not confirmed as true. From what I have read, if a man who is now a woman wants to compete with women, an analysis should be done to check that the hormones are feminine.
Sanched

“The idea that they can’t compete because they are stronger than a woman due to nature is false because the opposite is demonstrated in the hormonal analysis.”

Meanwhile, as part of the criteria, each woman must have testosterone levels below 10 nano moles per litre for at least 12 months prior to the start of the competition.

Hubbard, who also competed as a male, became eligible to lift as a woman after showing testosterone levels below the threshold required by the International Olympic Committee.

The whole world will be watching her as she tries to put all the negative critics behind her to make history.