Everyone agrees Trans Women are Women.

The International Olympic Committee has praised the weightlifter Laurel Hubbard’s “courage and tenacity” as she prepares to become the first transgender athlete to compete in an Olympics on Monday. The IOC’s medical and science director, Dr Richard Budgett, said “everyone agrees that trans women are women”.

Hubbard’s participation in Tokyo has proved controversial with her supporters hailing it as a historic moment for trans rights with the IOC’s critics believing that the 42-year-old New Zealander, who had never competed internationally until transitioning at 35, has an unfair and substantial advantage.

Budgett accepted that the issue was “large, difficult and complex”, but backed Hubbard’s right to compete.“To put it in a nutshell, the IOC had a scientific consensus back in 2015,” he said. “There are no IOC rules or regulations around transgender participation. That depends on each international federation. So Laurel Hubbard is a woman, is competing under the rules of her federationand we have to pay tribute to her courage and tenacity in actually competing and qualifying for the Games.”


While Budgett appeared to accept Hubbard had an advantage from going through male puberty, he stressed that inclusivity was an important factor too. “There are lots of aspects of physiology and anatomy, and the mental side, that contribute to an elite performance,. It’s very difficult to say, ‘yes, she has an advantage because she went through male puberty,’ when there’s so many other factors to take into account,” he said.