Olympic Trans Athlete Laurel Hubbard Wins Sportswoman of the Year

The New Zealand Weightlifter Failed to Place or Medal at the Tokyo Games

Sports

Laurel Hubbard, the first trans woman to compete in the Olympics, has won “Sportswoman of the Year” from the University of Otago.

Notable for being a biological male and living her life as such for the first 35 years of said life, Hubbard made the New Zealand weightlifting team in the over-87-kilogram (192 lbs) weight class and failed to medal in the only event she participated in at this year’s Tokyo Games.

Prior to transitioning, Hubbard competed in the sport as a man and was relatively unsuccessful in her career. In 2001, the then-Gavin Hubbard retired from the sport in 2001. Some 16 years and a new gender later, the new Laurel Hubbard “shocked” the world by winning two silver medals at the International Weightlifting Federation Championships in 2017. “I am who I am. I’m not here to change the world,” Hubbard said after the inclusive victory, but that was not the case.

Winning the “Sportswoman of the Year” award on Tuesday, Hubbard becomes the first trans woman to do so, snapping a 113-year-old record for female winners of the award that was started in 1908, as well as snapping another record for acknowledging athletic achievement. (As noted, Hubbard failed her only high-profile event.) The ceremony was held virtually, but the emotions were real.

The Sportswoman of the Year was unable to make a successful lift in the snatch, thereby justifying the critic’s outrage at her inclusion in this year’s games. The International Olympic Committee amended their policy to permit trans athletes in 2004, but after Hubbard broke through this time, the IOC is now going to discuss and publish new guidelines for transgender athletes that are “meant to protect inclusivity, safety and fairness in sport.” The previous guidelines, which Hubbard competed under, said she had to simply produce testosterone levels in serum below 10 nanomoles per liter for one year. The normal range of testosterone in males is 9.2 to 31.8 nmol/L and females at 0.3 and 2.4 nmol/L.

Stunning and brave.