Mary Gregory smashed four women’s weightlifting records and won nine out of nine events at a single tournament—as fresh a male-to-female transgender. But not everyone was so happy with that.
Gregory competed as a recently transgendered female at the 100% Raw Weightlifting Federation competition in Zion Crossroads, Virginia on May 27, and crushed four records in Masters world squat, open world bench press, masters world deadlift, and masters world total, Yahoo Sports reported.
She jubilated her victory on Instagram last Monday, and thanked the organization for its leniency as it comes to adhering to fair-play regulations.
“What a day, 9 for 9! Masters world squat record, open world bench record, masters world dl record, and masters world total record! Still processing, full meet recap to come a bit later but I do want to thank a few people,” Gregory wrote on Instagram.
She continued: “As a transgender lifter I was unsure what to expect going into this meet and everyone—all the spotters, loaders, referees, staff, meet director, all made me welcome and treated me as just another female lifter—thank you!”
But the record-crushing wasn’t met with such great cheer by everyone.
Silver Medalist swimmer for the British team at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Sharron Davies slammed Gregory’s power-lifting performance declaring on Twitter that allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sporting events creates a “pointless, unfair playing field.” She continued saying, Gregory has a “male body with male physiology” and that a “woman with female biology cannot compete.”
This is a trans woman a male body with male physiology setting a world record & winning a woman’s event in America in powerlifting. A woman with female biology cannot compete.. it’s a pointless unfair playing field. https://t.co/sI9i3AFANB
— Sharron Davies MBE (@sharrond62) April 28, 2019
British track Olympian Kelly Holmes commented on Twitter, “it’s a bloody joke and all getting ready for biological women to boycott certain events. Have a trans category if need be but even better a trans games. Otherwise, I’m starting to worry about the backlash and abuse that the trans community will get from spectators. It will happen!”
Its a bloody joke and all getting ready for biological women to boycott certain events.Have a trans category if need be but even better a trans games.Otherwise i’m starting to worry about the backlash and abuse that the trans community will get from spectators. It will happen!
— Kelly Holmes (@damekellyholmes) April 28, 2019
On May 1, the organization of the tournament, 100% RAW Powerlifting Federation, issued a statement (pdf) on social media in which it declared that it regrets all the turmoil the participation of a transgender in a female competition had caused on social media. It states:
“The Drug Testing Coordinator for this event performed the drug test at which time it was revealed that this female lifter was actually a male in the process of becoming a Transgender female.” It continues: “On the basis of all information presented to the Board of Directors for this particular case, the conclusion made is that the correct physiological classification is male.”
It then denies de facto Gregory her records stating: “Since the lifter’s gender classification for the purpose of our rules is not consistent with female, no female records will be broken by these lifts. The lifter was uncontested during the event, therefore, no female lifters were denied a place finish. The lifter will be placed in a different category once the Transgender Division is introduced with a new policy.”
