Ruminations: Peak Woke Insanity

"I'm quite disappointed, quite disappointed for the female athlete who will lose out on that spot."
"We're all about equality for women in sport but right now that equality is being taken away from us."
"I've had female weightlifters come up to me and say, 'what do we do? this isn't fair, what do we do?'. Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do because every time we voice it we get told to be quiet."
Former Olympic weightlifter Tracey Lambrechs

Former Olympic Weightlifter Claims Female Athletes Told To "Be Quiet" About Laurel Hubbard Transgender Issue At Tokyo Games

Former Olympic weightlifter Tracey Lambrechs claims female athletes are being told to "be quiet" when they complain about the fairness of Laurel Hubbard competing in women's competitions.

"[While committed to inclusion the IOC is currently reviewing its guidelines to take into account the] perceived tension between fairness/safety and inclusion/non-discrimination."
"The IOC is developing new guidance to help ensure that athletes -- regardless of their gender identity and/or sex characteristics -- can engage in safe and fair competition."
International Olympics Committee

"This is a question of fairness, that's why I oppose biological boys who are trans competing in girls sports in school."
"It just isn't fair, and we have to protect girls sports in our schools [from the physical advantages those born male have over females]."
Caitlyn Jenner - who transitioned to a woman following a successful career as a male Olympic athlete

Females, complains former Olympic weightlifter Tracey Lambrechs of New Zealand, are being told to "be quiet" in response to their complaints over the lack of fairness relating to the very real likelihood of transgender New Zealand athlete Laurel Hubbard proceeding to compete at the summer Tokyo Games. As far as the New Zealand Olympic Committee is concerned, the fact that a born male who transitioned to female will be competing against women athletes despite the obvious physical advantages masculinity brings, transition aside, is fine with them.

They see an opportunity to score a medal or two with this candidate in a climate that the woke world forces everyone else to wedge themselves in to and that's that. Having a male-born-but-transitioned-to-female with all the physical characteristics intact of malehood compete against women with their quite obviously slighter frames and musculature, it just the way the cookie crumbles. It is the advantage of the trans competitor, the country he/she represents and while it diminishes the sport itself and disadvantages women athletes in particular, well, that's life.

World Rugby banned transgender athletes from participating in elite women's game a year ago for obvious safety reasons. The NZOC sees no reason to do so and awaits nomination and selection for its weightlifting team in June, but are complacent that Hubbard meets the current International Weightlifting Federation criteria. So things are moving ahead just splendidly. An individual who competed in men's weightlifting competitions until transitioning in 2013, will now give women a run for their weightlifting prowess.

Hubbard: Women's +90kg Weightlifting Gold Coast 2018

Who needs performance enhancing drugs when individuals dissatisfied with their role in society can decide to transition and advantage themselves that way? Society and sport federations won't accept the use of drugs to enhance performance, but society now mandates that individuals who decide they're not comfortable in their 'assigned-at-birth' identities -- to use the sensitive new language of the trans community and their supporters -- must have their human rights' position respected in the great narrative of the LGBTQ-2 community.

Women who compete and have their own dreams of proving themselves equal to other women with the proven capacity of mastering a sport must now calculate how prepared they are, as women born, to compete against a man who prefers being a woman. Laurel Hubbard has yet to persuade the New Zealand Olympic Committee of personal fitness and performance standards prior to selection for the team, but that is a mere formality entirely for the optics of fair competition.

In 2015, the International Olympic Committee in its great wisdom and concern with fairness permitted any transgender athlete to compete as a woman with the proviso that their testosterone levels be under 10 nanomoles per litre for the year previous to their first competition. According to scientists, the guidelines do little to mitigate biological advantages of individuals who have undergone puberty as males, affecting bone and muscle density. Inconvenient details.