Okay, so this post is going to cause a bit of controversy, but it’ll be interesting to find out other people’s opinions on the matter of trans women competing in Olympic weight-lifting events.
Laurel Hubbard, a New Zealand weight-lifter, came out as transgender in 2013 and Olympic officials selected her for the NZ weight-lifting team. She had previously lifted 300kg in men’s competitions before quitting in 2001, but she resumed her sports career 10 years later at the age of 33. She suffered an elbow injury in 2018 and thought her career was over, but battled on to win Pacific Games gold in 2019.
Olympic criteria states that in order to compete, transgender women would need to have lived as a woman for the previous 4 years and to have kept their testosterone levels below 10 nanomoles per litre for at least 12 months.
Depending on age, men’s testosterone levels range between 10 and 30 namomoles per litre, and women’s testosterone levels range between 0.7 – 2.8.
This tells me one thing… for example if a transgender woman’s testosterone level is 9.99 to start with, then she automatically has an advantage over a non-transgender woman. The muscle mass which testosterone builds might probably still be there from her pre-transgender days as well, as of course transgender women have gone through male puberty.
Interestingly, Laurel at the age of 43 failed to lift 120kg at the Tokyo Olympics. Now then, was that due to her age (she’s the oldest competitor), her previous elbow injury, or her chemically reduced testosterone level? Would a younger, more fitter transgender woman have triumphed? I find it all rather fascinating.
Stevie Turner 
That’s a very interesting question, Stevie! But to be honest, I feel a little overwhelmed. 😉 Thanks, Michael.
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Reblogged this on NEW OPENED BLOG > https:/BOOKS.ESLARN-NET.DE.
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Thanks for the re-blog, Michael.
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Great topic. I’m not going to say to much, other than, as usual, I’m with you. 🙂 xx
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Cluck cluck cluck…🤣 Good call…. wisdom is in the silence!
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Lol 🙂
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Cheers Debby. x
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I’d be lost i a discussion like his without medical opinions. I think I’d need to know whether transgender women ever have he testosterone levels of one who was born female. And /or whether or not it’s the testosterone levels alone that decide on the abilities. It sounds lik the medics have tied to come up with a levelling range. But given the controversy. perhaps they should only be allowed to compete against other transgender athletes?
Hugs
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It’s the testosterone that builds muscles, and yes, transgender athletes should only compete against each other to make it fair.
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In Texas it’s being argued as well. Like which public restroom who can use with what plumbing. My feeling is girls wrestling boys or vice versa is ludicrous. There are rules governing steroid use in competition, yet we are willing to let a pronoun change cheat the system? Play and pee with the hardware you are given until such time as the hardware and hormones are altered. What a scam for horny young dudes – wear a dress to school and hang out in the girls’ locker room. When I was a youngster, I’d have been looking for where the line formed for that. All this brings me to one of my favorite limericks –
There once was a queer from Khartoum
Who took a lesbian up to his room
They argued all night
Over who had the right
To do what, and with which, and to whom
It’s an ageless argument. Only in a time of complete insanity and Political Correctness gone off a cliff do we let boys be girls so they can win. If you think you’re a girl, fix it, right? Like your character. Man (or woman) up, put on your big boy/girl panties and deal with it.
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Oh dear, I had to laugh at that limerick! Did you ever get that chance to wear a dress and hang out in the girls’ changing room?
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No, but there’s this… based on an email I got from an old friend… https://philh52.wordpress.com/2016/03/21/cat-show/
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Is that your old friend in the photo? Lol. That limerick’s stuck in my head now…
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Nope on the pic. But it’s perfect. That limerick will be stuck there 10 years from now. I haven’t forgotten it for over 50.
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In Connecticut a great controversy has been going on about high school girls running races. All the top girl runners are being beat by boys who are now girls( transgirls?). They believe it is unfair and I have to agree with them.
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Yes it is unfair.
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There are a few female sprinters who are transgender (I’ve also heard the term intersex athletes), but I haven’t seen it the other way around. Depending on their testosterone level, some are not allowed to compete in longer distances.
There is a female runner who wasn’t allowed to compete with the females because her testosterone level was too high, even though she physically a female.
It’s a complicated issue, and I wouldn’t want to have to make the rules.
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This has generated a lot of opinion on Twitter recently. As I recall, it is nothing new though. At the 1960 and 1964 Olympics, Russian competitors Tamara and Irina Press won medals in track and field events. They had the physical appearance of men to a large degree, and there was speculation in the newspapers that the Soviets were using male atheletes as women, or giving the Press sisters huge amounts of hormones.
In later Olympic Games, East Germany was also suspected of using ‘born male’ swimmers and atheletes in female events.
This recent case is the first where the weight lifter openly declared being transgender though. As I have no interest in sport, I don’t really care about this controversy. But it would appear that NZ made a mistake by not including a ‘born female’ weight lifter who could lift more weight than Hubbard.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I have no interest in sport or the Olympics, but it was the story of the transgender weightlifter that interested me. I hadn’t heard of the other stories you mention. She was competing with people half her age, and so maybe it was age that was a factor here rather than testosterone.
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