Canadian powerlifter says she REFUSES to compete against trans athletes as biological male sets record - ‘It’s pretty sad’

 April Hutchinson and trans athlete Ann Andres

April Hutchinson says she would never compete against trans athletes

GB NEWS / ICF
Ben Chapman

By Ben Chapman


Published: 20/08/2023

- 15:51

A trans athletes won gold at a prestigious powerlifting event this month

Canadian powerlifter April Hutchinson has vowed to never compete against trans athletes in a criticism of the “sad affair” of sport.

It comes after trans athlete Ann Andres claimed the gold medal at the Canadian Powerlifting Union’s women’s regional championship earlier this month.


Andres, a 6’2 athlete, lifted 1,327lbs, calculated from the combined weight of squat, bench and deadlift.

The 40-year-old beat her closest competition by a staggering 470lbs and achieved the second highest deadlift in women’s weightlifting history in the process.

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Hutchinson told GB News that many of her concerns have fallen on deaf ears.

“Here in Canada, my federation, the Canadian Powerlifting Union, has created a trans inclusion policy”, she told Leo Kearse.

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“This wasn’t a policy to protect women. Anyone could walk in, say they’re a female, crush some records, then walk out and say they’re a man again. It’s pretty sad.

“People don’t even have to declare their gender. One woman on the podium had no idea Ann was a man.

“There’s no hormone therapy or testing. I know Ann was born a man because I was friends with him a while ago. We would talk on Facebook.

“I told him ‘you should not be in women’s sports’, since then he blocked me and deleted me.

“I’ve had Olympic athletes help me in my long battle, but this year people are opening up their eyes and that’s wonderful.”

Transgender athletes have made ripples in the sport before, with Laurel Hubbard becoming one of the first openly transgender athlete to compete at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Hubbard was unable to achieve a model as she crashed out of the +87kg final after three failed lifts.

Despite her lack of success, Hubbard remains a talking point, with her participation seen as a catalyst for the increased involvement of trans athletes in sport.

The debate has raged on and has seen the introduction of open categories, with World Aquatics the latest sporting body to do so.

After trans athletes were banned from competing at major swimming events, the organisation announced the new category for “all sex and gender identities”.

Former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies argued that the new category is “rewarding mediocrity”, as many of the athletes would not be good enough for the category belonging to their biological sex.

She told GB News: “We have this situation which we saw in the Boston Marathon where they offered chances of £5,000 for the non-binary category.

“You’ve got males who are winning the non-binary category that are slower than 80 people in the men’s category and 20 people in the women’s category.

“You’re rewarding mediocrity, which I don’t understand because at the end of the day, whether you identify as non-binary or not, you’re still male or female.

“I just don’t understand why we’re doing this. Inclusion is saying ‘everyone can compete on a fair platform’, but giving them their own category where they can have their own prize money and medals to actually be not very good, I just don’t understand the common sense.

“Lia Thomas is a great example. She came to swimming and showed everyone what was going on. Here was this very mediocre six-foot-four male athlete who couldn’t break the top 500 in America then trans-identifies for a year and beats three Olympic female silver medalists.”

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