Weightlifting: Olympic Games set for transgender first

New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard will make history at Tokyo 2020

Transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard 
Transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard 
(Image credit: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

After a year-long postponement, the Olympic Games are due to kick off in Tokyo next month. But even before they start they’ll have made history, said Sean Ingle in The Guardian: a New Zealand weightlifter, who for 35 years lived as a man, is set to become the “first transgender athlete ever to compete” in the Olympics. Laurel Hubbard, 43, was formally selected this week to compete in the women’s super heavyweight 87kg category.

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