New Zealand’s Laurel Hubbard, a transgender weightlifter, believes she suffered a career-ending injury, rupturing a ligament in her left elbow on a snatch attempt (video here) at the Commonwealth Games on Monday, according to New Zealand media.
Hubbard, 40, could have been the first openly transgender athlete to compete at an Olympics in 2020 (though she did not mention the Olympics as a goal in at least two published December video interviews with New Zealand media).
“My arm’s busted,” Hubbard said Tuesday. “It looks like it’s probably going to be a career-ending injury, which is a real shame. I’m glad that I’ve gone out trying to achieve my best on the platform.”
Hubbard competed in elite weightlifting events as a man until beginning a transition to a woman at age 35. In order to compete, she must meet strict criteria around testosterone levels.
In December, Hubbard earned a world championships silver medal in the 90kg+ super heavyweight division behind American Sarah Robles.
Robles’ coach criticized Hubbard’s participation, saying, “Nobody wanted her to win,” according to Reuters.
Hubbard returned to New Zealand and discussed her participation in multiple interviews, calling it “a complex question.”
“Obviously the policies that are being put forward by organizations like the IOC [International Olympic Committee] and the IWF [International Weightlifting Federation] are evolving, and perhaps they may change after I’ve competed,” Hubbard said in December. “But I would ask people to keep an open mind and perhaps look to the fact that I didn’t win as perhaps the evidence that any advantage I may hold is not as great as they might think. I may have started competing in the last 12 to 14 months, but I started training years and years and years before that. To be honest, I had to wait until the world changed before I could really compete again, and I’m grateful that it has. ... The rules that enable me to compete first went into effect in 2003, were known as the Stockholm Consensus of the IOC. But, I think even 10 years ago, the world perhaps wasn’t ready for an athlete like myself, and perhaps it’s not ready now. But I got the sense at least that people were willing to consider me.”
Another transgender athlete is bidding for the Tokyo Games -- Brazilian indoor volleyball player Tifanny Abreu, according to The New York Times.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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