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On each table in the press box is a dark blue card the size of the palm of your hand.
"Guide to Journalist Coverage of LGBTQ Athletes at the Olympics," it says in English.
To access the PDF included in the guide, you have to scan a QR code with your mobile.
On the last pages of the document, there is a list of LGBTQ people participating in the Games.
"A record number of athletes, at least 142 this year," reads the paragraph that introduces several names.
In ninth place comes
Laurel Hubbard
: "She, an Olympian for the New Zealand team Weightlifting. She is the first openly transgender athlete to compete in the Olympics. She will be the oldest weightlifter to compete, at 43." .
The countdown for Hubbard to take the stage begins at the Tokyo International Forum, a gigantic congress and exhibition center 800 meters from the Imperial Palace where Emperor
Naruhito
resides
, who has transformed his main auditorium into the headquarters of weightlifting.
On the platform in the middle of a stage overloaded with false red walls, the 14 weightlifters of the category +87 kilos that compete for the medals are appearing one by one.
But all the lights await the New Zealander, the center of the biggest controversy in Tokyo 2020.
Hubbard
enters the scene and the photographers beat themselves to find the best position because they know it is a historical image.
There is silence.
The New Zealander fails in her first snatch attempt to lift 120 kilos.
Nor does he get it in the second pass with 125 kilos.
He fails in the third and withdraws from the competition, being out of the fight for the medals.
Did an athlete born with a man's body really have any advantage?
The eternal question of these last months.
Supporters hailed a historic moment for trans rights.
Critics complained that he had never competed internationally until he transitioned from
Gavin
to Laurel at 35 and had the upper hand.
Laurel Hubbard after running out of medal options AFP
But, what does the guide that the organization has given to journalists say?
"Transgender athletes will face unique scrutiny in Tokyo. Policies have been in place to include them in sports, including at the Olympics since 2004. Despite misinformation that transgender athletes have an unfair advantage, this is the first time that someone has qualified for the Games in the almost 20 years since its inclusion, "the document reads.
She continues: "Always use the name chosen by a transgender person. Many cannot get a legal name change in court. It is inappropriate to ask a transgender person about their genitalia or other surgeries they may not have had. Do not characterize being transgender as a mental disorder. "
"I JUST WANNA BE ME"
To find out what
Laurel Hubbard
thinks
of all the noise around her, one would have to go back to her last interview in New Zealand in 2017. She has not spoken to the press since, when she first competed as a weightlifter and won. two silver medals at the World Championships.
"I just want to be me and do what I do," said Hubbard, who asked people to be understanding and open to her competition as a woman.
Two years later, his victory in the +87 kg category at the Pacific Games sparked an avalanche of accusations against his participation.
He has received criticism from his rivals and from various federations.
Leading athletes from the LGTBIQ + community such as
Caitlyn Jenner or Martina Navratilova
have taken a position against someone born male being able to compete with women.
Belgian
Anna Vanbellinghen
, one of her rivals in Tokyo, said the New Zealander's participation was unfair.
"First of all, I would like to insist that I fully support the transgender community and that what I am going to say is in no way something that rejects the identity of this athlete, but for athletes this is all a bad joke," he said.
Another weightlifter, Spaniard
Andrés Mata
, also expressed his opinion against it.
"I do not think it is fair to let a transgender person compete in a sport where strength is as important as weightlifting," said the athlete.
But Hubbard meets all the rules of the competition
after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) opened the door in 2015 to transgender athletes if their testosterone levels are below 10 nanomoles per liter during the 12 months leading up to the event. competition, which would slow down the male hormone of the beard and strength.
The day before the weightlifting competition, IOC scientific and medical director Dr.
Richard Budgett
praised Hubbard's "courage and tenacity."
Budgett accepted that the issue was "big, difficult and complex" but endorsed Hubbard's right to compete.
"There are no IOC rules or regulations on the participation of transgender people. That depends on each international federation. So
Laurel Hubbard
is a woman and is competing under the rules of her federation, and we have to pay tribute to her courage and tenacity to compete and qualify for the Games. "
"ADVANTAGE OF 30%"
The scientific community has also appreciated that people who have gone through male puberty retain significant advantages in competition, even after taking drugs to suppress their testosterone levels.
An article published in
Sports Medicine
magazine
and signed by scientists
Emma Hilton and Tommy Lundberg
, argues that "the male performance advantage in lifting weights was 30% compared to women."
Their research indicates that "even when transgender women suppressed testosterone for 12 months, the loss in lean body mass, muscle area, and strength was only about 5%."
In his youth as a man, just 20 years old, Hubbard held the national record with a cumulative score of 300 kilos.
He left the competition at 23 years old.
"It just became too much to bear ... the pressure of trying to fit into a world that maybe wasn't really set up for people like me," he commented in an interview.
Since returning to weightlifting as a woman in 2012, Hubbard has won seven gold medals in international tournaments.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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