'She is among the top 10 in the world among women - so is that fair, is that right? It's a difficult thing.'Р”Вr Adair said attitudes might change, and while Hubbard is in the spotlight now, that might diminish after the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. ( Wikimedia commons: Department for Culture, Media and Sport) No trans athlete has ever qualified for the Olympics. Should Hubbard be allowed to compete in Tokyo? He said there wasn't much incentive, as prize money in women's sport is low and going through a gender transition involved discrimination and abuse. 'People don't wake up and want to win medals so they go into women's sport,' he said. He agreed the area was under-researched, but said until there was evidence to prove trans women had a clear advantage, they should be allowed to compete in the interests of human rights.Р”Вr Storr, who is also founder of LGBT sport charity Proud 2 Play, said there was a misconception that a man could wake up and self-identify as a woman the next day, saying transition was a long physical and psychological process. 'Those people are now winning and Laurel Hubbard is the evidence.'Р”Вr Ryan Storr, a lecturer in sports development at Western Sydney University, said there had been a rise in anti-trans sentiment and many claims about trans athletes having a natural advantage were unproven or incorrect. 'So within 20 years, women have built their discipline from scratch and it's now being undermined by people that don't have female bodies essentially,' she said. Read moreР”Вr Williams pointed out women didn't have a weightlifting category until the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

The IAAF's rules were called sexist, racist, unethical, and based on bad science, but the governing body dug its heels in. 'So even if the IOC do reduce down to five, it's still blatantly unfair.' 'Any reduction in testosterone, even to zero, wouldn't actually reverse the male performance advantage that someone has when they go through male puberty, because we can't reverse that,' she told the ABC. She said Hubbard had an unfair advantage that couldn't be negated by the IOC dropping the testosterone limits. The group was last year accused of transphobia online after tweets surfaced suggesting trans women carrying a potential foetus would be infected with '1,000 cancers'.Р”Вr Williams denied knowledge of the tweet and said her group rejects transphobia. It's not a playground for mediocre males, and it's certainly not a place to validate gender identity.' 'Female sport is there to showcase exceptional women.

'In the meantime there have to be other arrangements for transgender people so that they can compete fairly and females can compete fairly.

Three high-profile cases that are coming to a head show how the boundaries are changing off the field, writes Tracey Holmes.

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