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Olympic weightlifting schedule: When is transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard competing?

New Zealander set to become first transgender athlete to compete in history of Games

New Zealander Laurel Hubbard, 43, will make history when she becomes the first openly transgender woman to compete in the history of the Olympic Games.

Hubbard will take part in the women’s +87kg weightlifting on Monday 2 August at the Tokyo International Forum and will be up against Team GB’s Emily Campbell, amongst others.

“I am grateful and humbled by the kindness and support that has been given to me by so many New Zealanders,” she said in a statement in response to her selection by her country as part of a five-woman squad.

“When I broke my arm at the Commonwealth Games three years ago, I was advised that my sporting career had likely reached its end. But your support, your encouragement, and your ‘aroha’ [love] carried me through the darkness.

“The last eighteen months has shown us all that there is strength in kinship, in community, and in working together towards a common purpose. The mana of the silver fern comes to all of you and I will wear it with pride.”

Assigned male gender at birth, Hubbard set national records in junior competition under her given name before undergoing hormone therapy and coming out as trans in 2013, aged 35.

Since then, she has won a silver medal at the 2017 World Championships, sustained the aforementioned injury at the Commonwealth Games before roaring back to triumph with a gold at the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa.

Hubbard subsequently met all of the requirements of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) regulations for trans athletes to permit her participation in the Tokyo Games.

Among the IOC’s rules is a stipulation that the athlete in question has declared her gender identity is female and that that declaration has not been changed, for sporting purposes, for a minimum of four years.

Another says the athlete must demonstrate that her total testosterone level is below a specific measurement for at least 12 months prior to her first competition.

While Hubbard met those standards, the IOC policy also states: “The overriding sporting objective is and remains the guarantee of fair competition.”

It is this last condition that has prompted significant opposition to her taking part in some quarters, with her opponents arguing that Hubbard still has an unfair physical advantage in weightlifting.

Belgium’s Anna Van Bellinghen, who will likely compete against Hubbard, said the New Zealander’s presence in Tokyo would be “like a bad joke” for women competitors.

“I am aware that defining a legal frame for transgender participation in sports is very difficult since there is an infinite variety of situations and that reaching an entirely satisfactory solution, from either side of the debate, is probably impossible,” Van Bellinghen has said.

“However, anyone that has trained weightlifting at a high level knows this to be true in their bones: this particular situation is unfair to the sport and to the athletes.

“Life-changing opportunities are missed for some athletes – medals and Olympic qualifications – and we are powerless. Of course, this debate is taking place in a broader context of discrimination against transgender people and that is why the question is never free of ideology.”

But the New Zealand Olympic Committee has stood by Hubbard on the issue, saying in a statement: “We acknowledge that gender identity in sport is a highly sensitive and complex issue requiring a balance between human rights and fairness on the field of play.

“As the New Zealand Team, we have a strong culture of manaaki [hospitality] and inclusion and respect for all.

“We are committed to supporting all eligible New Zealand athletes and ensuring their mental and physical wellbeing, along with their high-performance needs, while preparing for and competing at the Olympic Games are met.”

The daughter of a former mayor of Auckland, Laurel Hubbard’s Olympic debut will certainly be eagerly anticipated around the world.

Mercedes-Benz E-Class E450 Review: Is It A Sleeper?

With as much output as the Ferrari Testarossa, the E450 has a powerful engine under the hood and is a luxury fitting for a fat cat sitting at the back. But is it a driver’s car?

Highlights

0-100kmph in 4.5 seconds

375bhp and 500Nm from 3.0-litre straight-six

Costs Rs 92.50 lakh (ex-showroom)

What is a Sleeper?

In car guys’ terms, a ‘sleeper’ means a ‘car with a big powerful engine under the hood, packing in a lot of horsepower’. But that’s any performance car, right? Well, the Sleeper tag comes in if the external appearance of the said car doesn’t give you the slightest hint of just how much power is lurking underneath. But you must be wondering if the car you see in the pictures here is your regular new-generation E-Class. And we had already driven the new E-Class some five months ago when the sixth-generation E-Class landed on our shores. That one was the E200. It had a 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine under the hood, which makes just over 200bhp and 320Nm. It’s rear-wheel-drive and can do 0-100kmph in just over eight seconds. You can also have the E-Class with a similar output diesel in the E220d guise. 

But what you see here is not your regular E-Class. This isn’t the E63 AMG either; don’t get too excited yet. I wouldn’t have been able to hold my giggles if it was an E63. But this one, it’s the range-topper. Costing over 17 lakh rupees more than the E200 (with a sticker price of Rs 92.5 lakh ex-showroom), this one wears a 450 badge. But does it qualify as a ‘sleeper’?

Under the long bonnet of the E450 sits a straight-six. The 3.0-litre straight-six makes 387bhp and 500Nm. That’s good enough to clock the acceleration time from 0-100kmph in just 4.5 seconds. To give you a perspective, the output is almost 170bhp more than the E200, and the acceleration time is as good as the erstwhile Nissan 370Z or the Porsche 718 Cayman. Want to know some more cars this can keep up with – the Alpine A110S, the Jaguar F-Type RWD or even some American muscle cars? And these are some serious driver’s cars. But the question is – is this E450 a driver’s car?

Well, it is fast, for the starters. The single-scroll turbocharger is ready at boost as soon as you plant your right foot on the accelerator, and the acceleration time of sub-5 seconds is apparent, and all that 500Nm is felt the moment you wring it. The squat position just before the take-off also proves just how intense the horsepower is under the hood. But there’s no hiding the fact that this is a large, heavy sedan.

It will be bought by the fat cat sitting at the back to be chauffeured from one meeting to another. They won’t care about the AWD setup, which reduces the understeer and enhances the grip when tackling a corner. They won’t even bother when say at the traffic light GP this one can smoke almost anything standing next to it. This is a fat, hefty sedan that can crunch the minions the same way the owner sitting at the back does in their respective field. 

Sadly, no, this is not the driver’s car you’d want it to be.

It doesn’t feel as eager and as light on its feet as the C-Class does. We have driven the C300, and it feels like a proper sprinter compared to this one. This one has matured a lot to assume the S-Class’s place after all. Similar to that middle-aged uncle we all know who tries to wear a hip t-shirt and sneakers to look and feel young, but he simply cannot escape the fact that with age (and dimension), comes maturity. The E-Class is now more mature. The bigger engine here is to make the commutes swifter rather than thrilling. It can easily sit at triple-digit speeds and can overtake at will. But it’s not there to give an adrenaline rush to the driver.

Apart from the engine, which is smooth, refined, vibration-free at any speed and quite responsive, too, the overall hardware largely remains unchanged. I still wish the E-Class came with a better set of tyres that were a tad grippier and a bit more silent. The steering feels light and easy at slow speeds. But I wish they were a bit more communicative. The ride isn’t too bad, either. It absorbs most irregularities without a bother. The gearbox, too, is smooth, quick-shifting and free from any lags or jerks.