Former Olympian Says Transgender Athletes In Women’s Sports: ‘Very Upsetting And Stressful’
Former pro weightlifter and Olympic competitor, Tracey Lambrechs, is warning against allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports saying this could be disastrous for female athletes.
Lambrechs, from New Zealand, ramped up her advocacy to keep women’s sports exclusively for biological women after fellow Kiwi, transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard, qualified to participate in the upcoming Tokyo Olympic games representing New Zealand.
Lambrechs competed with Hubbard and was defeated in numerous weightlifting competitions. Reports said prior to transitioning, Hubbard has also participated in men’s weightlifting events.
In 2017, Lambrechs — a biological woman — was forced to shed almost 40 pounds in three months in order to qualify for a lower weight class and continue competing. Lambrechs’ coach was then informed that if she wanted a chance to keep competing, she needed to lower a weight class or retire.
“Losing that much weight quickly was not ideal for my health and I suffered some severe migraines and started passing out a lot,” Lambrechs told National Review.
She also noted that being defeated by biological males in a women’s competition, “psychologically speaking it’s very upsetting and stressful.”
Lambrechs said that as a member of the New Zealand national team, she was ordered to keep silent and refrain from opposing trans athletes’ involvement in women’s sports, or risk being kicked off for humiliating the team.
“We were told not to talk to the media and were warned that if we did we could bring the sport into disrepute and then could miss out on being selected or could be dropped from national teams,” Lambrechs added.
“The sports national body did not know how to handle the situation, so they had a knee-jerk reaction and thought silence would be best for them.”
"I got a phone call and they told me all my records had just been broken." #LaurelHubbard smashed every record previously set in New Zealand by female athletes. Is this what female empowerment looks like? pic.twitter.com/bzhxgTFhpt
— David Kelly (@Official_DavidK) June 24, 2021
Last month, Hubbard qualified for the Olympics at 43 — becoming the oldest female weightlifter currently expected to compete and will also be the first transgender woman in individual sports at the Olympics.
Hubbard’s qualification sparked controversy, however, as to the future of biological women competing in women’s sports with biological males allowed to participate.
Athletes and other critics of transgender athletes competing argue that biological males have substantial advantages over female competitors, such as bone mass and skeletal structure, even if they fulfill the testosterone requirements through surgery.
The International Olympic Committee announced in 2015 that it would allow biological males to participate in women’s competitions as long as the athlete’s testosterone level is below 10 nanomoles per liter for at least a year prior to competing — but even that rule has blocked female athletes with naturally high testosterone levels from competing.
Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, two of Namibia’s track athletes, for example, were barred from competing in the Olympics after their testosterone levels were found to be over the permitted limit. They are seeking to appeal the decision, claiming that their naturally high testosterone levels should not exclude them from competing.
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