The issue about transgender athletes taking part in the Pacific Games will be a topic of discussion for some time yet.

While New Zealand transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard has returned home with a gold medal from the women’s +87kg category, she has left many in the Pacific Games family in a quandary.

Here are some facts:

• Laurel Hubbard previously competed in the men’s weightlifting category as Gavin Hubbard.
• In 2017, Hubbard for the first time competed in the women’s category as a transgender athlete and won.
• Last week, Hubbard beat Samoa’s top lifter Feagaiga Stowers with a lift of 125kg in the snatch, 143kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 268kg.
• The International Olympic Committee allows transgender athletes (male to female ) to compete after they have lowered testosterone levels.
• There is nothing the Pacific Games organising committee can do as the endorsement has been made by the ruling body, the IOC.
• Another transgender athlete is competing in Samoa. Jaiyah Saelua represents American Samoa in the men’s football team. Unlike Hubbard, Saelua choose to play in the men’s team.
• Chairman of the Pacific Games organising committee and Minister for Education, Sports and Culture Loau Keneti Sio said on Tuesday that its not fair for a transgender athlete to complete against a women

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