Two things I'm trying to understand — the direction sport is heading and the precedent it is setting.
On one hand you have 80 athletes from various fields being investigated for steroid abuse. On the other hand you have Laurel Hubbard, an athlete in the field of weightlifting.
With regards to the steroids, I believe it's men and women attempting to gain the upper hand over opposing men and women. The weightlifting is not so straight forward — Laurel is transgender.
Competing as Gavin Hubbard, he set New Zealand junior records in 1998 in the newly-established M105+ division with snatch 135kg, clean and jerk 170kg. In 2012 he was appointed executive officer for Olympic Weightlifting New Zealand. Subsequently, she transitioned to female and became Laurel Hubbard.
Since competing against women he has broken a number of weightlifting records, resulting in Rio Olympian Tracy Lambrechs having to shed 17kg in order to compete against him in the 90kg class.
