Weight lifting is divided into weight categories. The bigger the lifter the more weight they can lift.
It would be unfair to allow a heavy weight to compete in a light weight category. /2
We also divide weightlifting into SEX categories. Even the smallest males can lift more than the biggest females.
That's because male bodies develop on high levels testosterone but female bodies don't. This is called MALE performance advantage /3
Laurel Hubbard's body developed on high levels of testosterone and so has MALE performance advantage.
Many studies show that lowering testosterone in adulthood does not remove male performance advantage /4
Hubbard is one of the top lifters in the heavy weight female category. But can only lift the same as other males who are 5 Stone (30kg) lighter! /5
Hubbard cannot lift anywhere close to other male's of the same size. Hubbard is not an Olympic level lifter /6
Female Olympic medal contender OR mediocre male? /7
Who will Laurel Hubbard be up against?
China's Wenwen Li is favourite for GOLD. /8
The real battle will be for SILVER and BRONZE.
USA's Sarah Robles is a strong contender. This is her third Olympics, and at age 32 this will be her last /9
Great Britain has a good chance of a medal. Emily Campbell won the European Championships in April. She's good. But will she be good enough to beat Hubbard? /10
At age 43, Hubbard is a veteran and 20 years older than most of the Olympic line up. It's unheard of for a woman this old to still be competitive at the highest levels. /11
Who’s missing from Tokyo 2020?
There are only 14 places available per Olympic weight category. Hubbard has taken one of these female spaces. This means a woman has lost out on her place to make room.
That woman’s name is Roviel Detenamo. /12
Roviel is from Nauru, a small island in the Pacific Ocean.
This should have been her first Olympics. She would have been the 3rd Nauruan women to ever become an Olympian, and the 1st for almost 20 years
The IOCs transgender inclusion policy meant she never made it to Tokyo /13
Whether Hubbard gets a medal next week or not women have already paid the price. A woman lost her Olympic dream.
Inclusion for Laurel means exclusion for Roviel. This is what trans inclusion in women’s sport means. Females get excluded from their own category /14
Start a conversation about transgender inclusion in women's sport today. Most people knows its unfair. They are just too scared to say it out loud /16. fairplayforwomen.com/commonsense_sp…
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"How has Hubbard even qualified for the Olympics? At 43, she is 20 years older than the field. Men half Hubbard’s 20-stone bulk can lift bigger weights. Yet she counts among the strongest women in the world" /1
@VictoriaPeckham Like @FondOfBeetles says: When rules permit a medal challenge by a 43 year old male who has taken a 20 year career break and is over 15 years older than the competition, the rules are wrong.
Read the facts ahead of Monday's the super heavy-weight comp /2
@VictoriaPeckham@FondOfBeetles "Samoa shows another way. Embrace gender expression but don’t override sex. Instead of insisting women budge up and lose out, why not make male sports an open category? Insist men “be kind” for once".
Yes - men don't need a protected category - only women do. /3
“If you are prepared to extrapolate from evidence, & consider the fact the have been no openly transgender women at the top level until now, I think the threat to women’s sport has probably been overstated.”
This is the FIRST Olympic cycle & we have THREE world class entries /3
Last year the BBC breached its own guidelines on suicide. Many complained and got brushed off. 7 months later, perseverance and determination paid off, and the head of complaints has now admitted the BBC failed and cut out huge chunks from the article /1
Here's the new version. Ben Hunte's name gone. Gone too outrageous and unsubstantiated claims by Adrian Harrop, Helen Webberley (Gender GP) and an anonymous clinician all saying the Bell ruling will lead to suicide of children /3 bbc.co.uk/news/education…
This is why women's sport is in a mess. The IOC's own medical and science director can't even admit the basics that male puberty provides a performance advantage in strength sports! /1
“There are lots of aspects of physiology and anatomy, and the mental side, that contribute to an elite performance, and it’s very difficult to say, ‘yes, she has an advantage because she went through male puberty,’ when there’s so many other factors to take into account” /2
Why does the Olympics even have any female categories then? Why are males and females separated in the first place? What does the IOC think the key distinction even is?!
Gender ideology students might be forgiven for such ignorance. The IOC cannot. /3
Google “Olympic Dream”. It’s a cliché but it’s everywhere. Listen to interviews during these Games and you’ll hear it over and over from athletes, versions of “it’s always been my dream, and here I am”. /2
After the dream comes true, you’re an Olympian for life. Most Olympians don’t win a medal but they’ll always be Olympians.
That’s why it matters that some women are losing that chance, despite being among the best in the world in their sport /3
Exclusive interview by @bindelj with Amy, the courageous female prisoner who took MOJ to the high court for a judicial review of its policy that allows male sex offenders into women’s prisons. /1
“What were the officers even thinking, letting her clean toilets in which women would be in a state of undress and alone? Why was there a child sex offender with a penis cleaning the toilets of the gym in a women's prison?' /2
'When J went for a shower, the prison put a sign on the door saying that no one else should enter…. but J objected to this and said it was an infringement of her human rights,'
'She said, 'I am a woman and I want to shower with other women.' /3