There is an old Soviet tale about Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. At lunchtime, he would retreat into his office and stare at the map of the world. The map was centered on the Soviet Union. The old Bolshevik would just glare at it as if it were a giant chessboard awaiting Moscow’s next move.
New Zealand transexual weightlifter Laurel Hubbard failed to record a single successful lift in the women’s +87kg weightlifting at the Tokyo Olympics on Monday morning, crashing out of the competition in the process.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) reaffirmed its full support of transgender athletes Friday when medical director Richard Budgett declared “transwomen are women” and should be included in women’s sport “when we possibly can.”
On the heels of the news that New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard — a biological male who identifies and competes as a female — is set to become the first-ever transgender athlete to compete in the Olympics, it appears some biological female athletes are none too pleased.
New Zealand’s Laurel Hubbard is set to compete in Tokyo after the introduction of new rules letting transgender women enter female events. This is an affront to top athletes who spend their lives training to be the world’s best.
