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Breaking News:

New Zealand’s Laurel Hubbard Selected as First Transgender to Compete in Olympics in Weightlifting – She Competed as a Man Until 2013

  New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard was selected to be part of the Olympic team this year. Hubbard participated as a man in the sport ...

 

New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard was selected to be part of the Olympic team this year.

Hubbard participated as a man in the sport before her transition in 2013.

Laurel won her first international women’s weightlifting title in Australia in 2017 breaking four national records in the process.

Hubbard is eligible to compete in the Olympics because “the IOC issued new guidelines allowing transgenders to compete as women as long as their testosterone levels are below 10 nanomoles per liter for at least 12 months before the competition,” Reuters reported.

The Daily Mail reported:

New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard has been selected to be part of the country’s team for the Tokyo Olympic Games, becoming the first openly transgender athlete to compete at the event after qualifying requirements were modified.

Hubbard will compete in the women’s 87-kg category, the New Zealand Olympic Committee said in a statement.

‘I am grateful and humbled by the kindness and support that has been given to me by so many New Zealanders,’ Hubbard said in the statement.

The 43-year-old had competed in men’s weightlifting competitions before transitioning in 2013.

She has been eligible to compete in the Olympics since 2015, when the International Olympic Committee issued guidelines allowing any transgender athlete to compete as a woman provided their testosterone levels are below 10 nanomoles per litre for at least 12 months before their first competition.