Rejected: Transgender Weightlifter's Claim to Women's Records Revoked By League
Born-male trans powerlifter smashed four female world records, officials reject awards
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A born-male transgender weightlifter, who recently smashed several women's powerlifting records in a single day by "identifying" as a woman, has had the claims rejected by the official weightlifting league.
100% RAW Powerlifting Federation investigated the controversial claims by trans athlete Mary Gregory and ruled that gender classification is determined by biology rather than how a person identifies themselves.
The board ruled that, despite competing as a female, Gregory's "correct physiological classification is male."
“Our rules, and the basis of separating genders for competition, are based on physiological classification rather than identification,” said a statement from the Federation's president, Paul Bossi.
"On the basis of all information presented to the Board of Directors for this particular case, the conclusion made, is that the correct physiological classification is male," Bossi continued.
"Since the lifter’s gender classification for the purpose of our rules is not consistent with female, no female records will be broken by these lifts."
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As Neon Nettle previously reported, transgender weightlifter Gregory had touted the apparent wins on April 28 and 29.
Gregory crushed the existing records for the masters world squat, open world bench press, masters world deadlift, and masters world total events.
"As a transgender lifter I was unsure what to expect going into this meet and everyone — all the spotters, loaders, referees, staff, meet director, all made me welcome and treated me as just another female lifter," Gregory gushed in an Instagram post. "Thank you!"
The news of Gregory's "victory" ignited a backlash from female Olympic champions, however.
This is a trans woman a male body with male physiology setting a world record & winning a woman’s event in America in powerlifting. A woman with female biology cannot compete.. it’s a pointless unfair playing field. https://t.co/sI9i3AFANB
— Sharron Davies MBE (@sharrond62) April 28, 2019
Former swimmer Sharron Davies, who won a silver medal for Great Britain in the 1980 Summer Olympics, blasted the news.
Davies — who's been outspoken against transgender females competing against biological females — tweeted that Gregory has a "male body with male physiology" and that a "woman with female biology cannot compete.
"It's a pointless unfair playing field."
A born-male #transgender weightlifter, who "identifies" as a woman, smashed four women's world records in a single day, igniting a backlash from female Olympic champions.
— Neon Nettle (@NeonNettle) May 1, 2019
READ MORE: https://t.co/mVnmtASVk6#TransgenderAthletes #MaryGregory
Replying to Davies' tweet was Dame Kelly Holmes, who won a pair of gold medals — the 800-meter and 1,500-meter races — for Great Britain at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Holmes noted that "it's a bloody joke and all getting ready for biological women to boycott certain events."
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Prior to Gregory's record-breaking attempts, officials at 100% Raw Powerlifting had been developing a policy to refute claims by transgender athletes.
On Facebook, Bossi described how Gregory’s weightlifting awards were revoked:
On Friday April 26th, I received a phone call from a Meet Director letting me know that we might possibly have a Transgender lifter competing on Saturday April 27th at the USA Master Nationals.
I asked if this lifter had stated anything to him in regards to being a Transgender lifter and the Meet Director indicated no. I asked what category was checked off on the entry form and he stated female. I informed him to let her lift as it would be more insulting to ask a lifter such a personal question, especially if the lifter did not offer to disclose this information.
On Saturday April 27th , the lifter exceeded the current female World Records in this lifter’s age and weight category. This automatically calls for Drug Testing protocol which takes place at the end of every event.
The Drug Testing Coordinator for this event performed the drug test at which time it was revealed that this female lifter was actually a male in the process of becoming a Transgender female…
On Monday April 29th , I the President and the Board of Directors met to discuss this matter. As an aside, the Board of Directors has been working on a Transgender policy. This new policy had not been completed prior to this event occurring…
Everyone has commented on the posts that this lifter posted on their Instagram page. It is very unfortunate that the news media, social media and so many others have made comments before the true facts could be released.
- Facts: 1. The lifter identifies as female, and so entered the contest (with no prior consultation with the Meet Director or (100% RAW officials). Our rules, and the basis of separating genders for competition, are based on physiological classification rather than identification. On the basis of all information presented to the Board of Directors for this particular case, the conclusion made, is that the correct physiological classification is male.
- 2. Since the lifter’s gender classification for the purpose of our rules is not consistent with female, no female records will be broken by these lifts.
- 3. The lifter was uncontested during the event therefore no female lifters were denied a place finish. The lifter will be placed in a different category once the Transgender Division is introduced with a new policy.
- 4. Drug testing results have not been completed and will take about another week to come back from the lab. As a drug test failure invalidates the lifts, we will need to wait for the results of the drug tests to determine if the lifts can be counted at all under our current set of rules.
Several organizations are being formed by Americans to protect sports from transgender activists.
They include Save Women’s Sports founded by Beth Stelzer, and Let All Play established by Jennifer Bryson.
