Kiwi weightlifter Laurel Hubbard will make history Monday when she becomes the first openly trans woman to compete at the Olympic Games. Amid an avalanche of transphobic abuse online, the International Olympic Committee has affirmed her right to compete, and Hubbard has issued a statement thanking the organization for its support.
“The Olympic Games are a global celebration of our hopes, our ideals and our values,” Hubbard said in comments provided to the Associated Press by the New Zealand Olympic Committee. “I commend the IOC for its commitment to making sport inclusive and accessible.”
Hubbard has been selective in her comments to the press leading up to her historic appearance in Tokyo, so it has been difficult to know how she is feeling about her place in the competition. She has chosen instead to put her head down and focus on performing to the best of her ability at the Olympics.
Ashley Abbott, a spokesperson for the New Zealand Olympic Committee, said that the conversation about Hubbard’s participation has been overwhelming.
“Certainly we have seen a groundswell of comment about it and a lot of it is inappropriate,” she told reporters, according to France24. “In terms of social media, we won’t be engaging in any kind of negative debate.”
Ahead of Hubbard’s appearance Monday in the women’s over-87 kilogram weightlifting contest, the IOC’s medical and science director, Dr. Richard Budgett, defended Hubbard’s inclusion at the Games. He reiterated that under the international federation that governs weightlifting, Hubbard meets the criteria for competing in the women’s division.
“There is a lot of disagreement across the whole world of sport and beyond on this issue of eligibility,” Budgett said, according to The Guardian. “Everyone agrees transgender women are women. But it’s a matter of eligibility for sport, and particular events, and it really has to be very sport-specific.”
That it was necessary for the IOC to so vigorously defend Hubbard’s participation speaks to the volume of controversy and misinformation that has been stoked by right-wing publications and spread online about trans athletes. Trans women have been eligible to compete in the Olympic Games since 2003, but the Tokyo Games are the first time any openly trans women have qualified.
American Chelsea Wolfe, another trans woman, is in Tokyo as well, as an alternate for the U.S. BMX freestyle team. Hurdler CeCé Telfer had hoped to compete in the Olympic trials this year for a chance to qualify for the Tokyo Games, but she failed to meet the testosterone regulations provided by World Athletics, the international federation that governs track and field. World Athletics has one of the most restrictive policies regarding trans athletes of any international federations.
Pedantic arguments over hormone levels reduce people — and trans women, in particular — to their biology, ultimately dehumanizing them. Abbott, the NZOC spokesperson, made sure to emphasize that reality in her comments to the media, saying, “We all need to remember that there’s a person behind all these technical questions.”
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