Laurel Hubbard, a forty-two-year-old New Zealander who competed in men’s weightlifting when younger with modest success. In 2019 Hubbard won gold in the women’s division at the Pacific Games, defeating two teenage Samoans. ‘This fa’afafine, or male, should never have been allowed by the Pacific Games Council President to lift with the women,’ said the Samoan prime minister (who can hardly be accused of prejudice against gender non-conforming people: he is patron of the Samoan Fa’afafine Association).
