Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came under heavy criticism once again for his inclusive policies that allow biological men to compete in women’s sports after a trans powerlifter became the new champion on Sunday, August 13th, breaking two records in the process, the Toronto Sun wrote.
During the 2023 Western Canadian Powerlifting Championship, 40-year-old trans athlete Anne Andres dominated all fields. The lifter not only won first place in the contest but bested the runner-up, SuJan Gill, with a difference of 210 kilograms, easily breaking the Canadian women’s record and the unofficial world record in powerlifting as well.
Andres’ combined score (the sum of total kilograms lifted in squat, bench, and deadlift) was 597.5 kilograms, while Gill came in second with 387.5 kilograms. By comparison, the top athletes in male powerlifting typically score between 800 and 850 kilograms.
Over the course of the last four years, Andres has won no less than eight women’s competitions. What’s more, the trans lifter is preparing to enter the women’s category at next month’s national championship in Canada to bring home the highest domestic title as well. Addressing the accusations of unfair physical advantage, Andres acknowledged no understanding of upper body strength differences between males and females.
Sunday’s event was eerily similar to another trans athlete’s, Lia Thomas’, victory in women’s swimming in March this year, sparking widespread public outrage. Since then, the debate flares up every time a biological man competes with women and wins prestigious titles, such as in the case of Alicia Rowley, who recently became the national tennis champion in the U.S. women’s 55-and-over category, receiving the coveted ‘golden ball.’
Back in Canada, the focus of attention is not so much on the athlete as on the prime minister and his woke policies, which allow the phenomenon to be replicated more and more often. According to Riley Gaines, a prominent advocate for fairness in women’s sports ever since she had to compete against Thomas, the incident reflects “Justin Trudeau’s radical disdain for women (and reality).”
“Andres’ record is a mediocre lift by a mediocre male powerlifter because the Canadian powerlifting union is discriminating against female athletes,” Gaines said in the video she posted on social media, stressing that men and women have obvious physical differences that come into play in any sport.
That’s exactly why the women’s sporting category was ever even created. And we deserve to be recognized and celebrated based on those physical ceilings and our own uniqueness.
Gaines called the result of the competition—and Andres’ lead by over 200 kilograms—a “massacre.” “This isn’t ‘equality’ or ‘fairness,’” she said. “It’s a sick joke to enable mentally ill cheaters to humiliate women.”
Canadian powerlifter April Hutchinson spoke about the impact Andres’ victory caused in her weightlifting community during her appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored. “For example, that national record that he broke—athletes have been chasing that for years,” she said. “And we’re talking top athletes who have been training, and training, and training.”
Hutchinson, calling the event “very disheartening,” told Morgan that
A lot of women yesterday dropped out of the competition because they knew that Anne would be lifting. They dropped, they quit, they wrote to the federation, and the federation basically did nothing about it.
