They turned millions of people around the world against themselves. Many still cannot accept that there are many more genders than two. Others simply do not understand how such applicants can compete on an equal footing with ordinary men and women.
But the fact that transgender people were allowed to participate in the Tokyo Olympics for the first time is clearly a significant event. We introduce you closer to this small group of athletes.
The Olympics in Tokyo is considered the most tolerant in recent years because as many as 142 gay athletes participate in it. However, even among this group, there are still a few who are not only far from the “traditional agenda”, but even decided to change their gender.
In fact, the reasons why transgender people rarely claim Olympic records are quite understandable. To win medals, athletes need to devote every day, if not an hour of their lives, to improving their skills. As you understand, complex sexual operations, hormonal therapy, and other stages of the “transition” into such a complex routine are difficult to fit. But still, they fit in.
Sports officials from some countries ( including Russia ) are outraged that transgender people compete on an equal footing with other participants, and demand that a separate category be opened for them. We have no doubt that this will be feasible in the future. But at the Tokyo Olympics, only three athletes have so far been declared who have made the transition to the other sex.
Laurel Hubbard
Weightlifter from New Zealand
After the devastating defeat at the Olympics, the whole world recognized the name of Laurel, and she is hardly happy about it. Until recently, the weightlifter won even at the World Championships, and in Tokyo, she could not take a single weight. The shots of the barbell being torn from her mighty hands have become a real meme: as well as photos in which Hubbard smiles coquettishly at failure and leaves the ring.
It would seem surprising that Laurel got zero points in the weight lifting category. The former man, who, moreover, has been involved in weightlifting since his youth, must clearly have more strength than his rivals – ordinary women. But, alas, something went wrong.
By the way, Hubbard has been participating in competitions for almost 10 years as a transgender woman – and is gradually transforming her appearance, although she does not try to look as feminine as possible. This time she was not only the first of her kind among weightlifters but also the most mature participant in the Olympics in this direction: the New Zealander is 43 years old.
Until 2004, Laurel, while still a man named Gavin, became the champion of Oceania among juniors and set a record by lifting the barbell by 135 (with a snatch) and 170 (with a clean and jerk) kilograms. Then for many years, she left the big sports, realizing herself as a woman. At that time, Hubbard held a high position in the Olympic Weightlifting Federation in New Zealand and promoted the interests of transgender athletes in the country.
Nothing is known about the personal life of an unusual athlete. Since transition surgery, Laurel has shut herself off from the world and only broadcasts events related to her sports career.
Quinn
Canada football player
Today, a Canadian athlete asks to be called exclusively by his last name – Quinn. Without mentioning the name given by the parents, Rebecca. The player has not yet made a full transition but asks to consider himself a man.
In fact, 25-year-old Quinn only came out as a transgender man in 2020. At the last Olympics in Brazil in 2016 and at the World Championships in 2019, the athlete was still a full-fledged part of the women’s team. This time, Quinn also remains on the women’s team. But only because he had not yet had time to start a course of hormone therapy, but simply cut off his hair and removed the mammary glands.
Quinn has a sweetheart named Anya. The girl is proud of the athlete and shares her emotions from watching the Olympics on social networks, trying not to pay attention to the negativity towards the chosen one.
Chris Mosier
US triathlete
The third transgender participant at the Tokyo Olympics – and the second most mature, as he is already 41 years old – was supposed to be Chris Mosier. However, in 2020, he was injured during the selection and did not make the list of participants in the Games. It’s a pity because at the beginning he was credited with the title of “the very first transgender at the 2020 Olympics”!
Chris admits that he realized himself as a man when he was still … a 4-year-old girl. However, he began the transition only at the age of 30, when he officially received the right to inject testosterone injections. As a woman, he almost never looked: and actively promoted the rights of anyone who needs it to identify themselves as a different gender.
Chris has long been happily married to an ordinary female engineer, Zhen Heinemann. Spouses rarely advertise their relationships on social networks. Much more often, Monsieur posts brutal photos demonstrating his muscles. And he really has the right shape!
