Transgender Weightlifter Cleans Up at 2019 Pacific Games, Takes Two Gold Medals
Trans athlete Laurel Hubbard soars to victory in women's events
© press
A born-male transgender athlete, who identifies as female, has cleaned up in the women's weightlifting events at the 2019 Pacific Games.
Trans weightlifter Laurel Hubbard took two gold medals and one silver during the international sports championships in Samoa.
The Pacific Games is held every four years and is a multi-sport event, much like the Olympic Games (albeit on a smaller scale), with participation exclusively from countries around the South Pacific Ocean.
41-year-old Laurel, formerly Gavin Hubbard, “won two gold medals and a silver in the three heavyweight categories, for women weighing more than 87 kilograms, or 192 pounds, finishing first in the snatch-lift and combined categories and second in the clean-and-jerk,” according to The Washington Times.
© press
According to Caldron Pool, in second place was Samoa’s 18-year-old weightlifter Feagaiga Stowers, who won her nation’s second gold medal last year after Hubbard was forced to withdraw due to an elbow injury.
Stuff.co added, “Lifting for gold comes after revelations that Hubbard was charged with careless driving causing injury after her vehicle fishtailed on a sharp bend near Queenstown on October 24, 2018.
"Her car hit a vehicle carrying an Australian couple in their 60s.
"The male driver spent nearly two weeks in Dunedin Hospital and needed major spinal surgery on returning to Australia.”
© press
Stuff also reported that Hubbard sought the permanent suppression of his name after the accident, and a judge ruling in February supported suppressing the name until the end of September 2019, but Stuff appealed, and last week the High Court overruled the judge from February.
Stuff noted, “Justice Gerald Nation said Judge Farnan had made a number of errors and Hubbard's potential distress did not meet the legal test for suppression.”
In the accident, Brisbane couple Gary and Sue Wells were injured; Gary, 69, reportedly needed major spinal surgery; Sue reportedly suffered several broken ribs.
Sue Wells stated, "We'll never leave the country again because of the trauma from this accident.
"Our son had to leave his work to look after us in Dunedin. We had to depend on friends and family for months.”
She said of Hubbard, “She walked out like nothing had happened."
She said of the case to suppress Hubbard’s name, "It was to protect her from hardship while she trained for the Olympics.
"What a load of crap.
"We couldn't do anything for four months."
