Gavin Hubbard Fr. Mark Hodges
NEW ZEALAND, December 6, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – Male weightlifter Gavin Hubbard has won a medal competing against women under the name “Laurel.”
Hubbard, 39, won two women’s silver medals at the world championships of the International Weightlifting Federation in Anaheim, California this week. He became the first New Zealander to win a medal at the championships and also the first transgender to win.
Critics within the weightlifting world are crying foul.
“We’re in a power sport which is normally related to masculine tendencies… Where you’ve got that aggression…then you can lift bigger weights,” Australian Weightlifting Federation chief executive Michael Keelan told the Associated Press.
“If you’ve been a male and you’ve lifted certain weights, then you suddenly transition to a female, psychologically you know you’ve lifted those weights before,” he said.
“I personally don’t think it’s a level playing field,” Keelan added. “That’s my personal view and I think it’s shared by a lot of people in the sporting world.”
Hubbard finished second in the women’s 90kg-plus snatch, which gave him his first medal, and fourth in the women’s clean and jerk category. His combined total won the second
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