Update: This Facebook post has been corrected to note that the picture is from the 2019 Pacific Games.
A viral Facebook post claims that a “man won gold in women’s lifting finals competition.”
The claim is false.
The pictures are of Laurel Hubbard, a transgender weight lifter who recently made headlines after the International Olympic Committee determined Hubbard could compete in the Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first transgender athlete to compete in an individual event at the Summer Olympics. The IOC currently allows transgender women to participate in the Olympics provided their testosterone levels remain below 10 nanomoles per liter for at least a year before competition, but has said it will be updating guidelines on transgender athlete participation.
The pictures from the Facebook post are not, however, from the Olympic Games, but from the 2019 Pacific Games, where Hubbard won two gold medals, spurring controversy about the decision to allow a biological male to participate in the women’s competition. Hubbard did not medal at the Tokyo Olympics, competing in the women’s +87 kg event, but failing to complete any lifts.
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