Trans athlete sparks outrage after toppling women’s powerlifting world record: ‘Completely unfair’

A Canadian transgender athlete set a new unofficial world record in women’s powerlifting during a competition last week.

One professional competitor expressed outrage on FOX Business Thursday following 40-year-old transgender athlete Anne Andres’ victory.

“It’s completely unfair…No one thinks that’s fair,” female powerlifter April Hutchinson said on “Varney & Co.” 

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Andres, a biological male who identifies as a woman and holds multiple powerlifting records in the female division, blew out opponents in the Canadian Powerlifting Union’s 2023 Western Canadian Championship Female Masters Unequipped category.

Her total weight lifted in squat, bench and deadlift resulted in a final score of 597.5 kilograms, which was over 200 kilograms more than her closest opponent, SuJan Gill, who finished at 387.5 kilograms. 

Hutchinson argued Andres’ victory spells an impossible and disheartening future for female competitions in the sport.  

“I think the total was 462 pounds, he has the second-highest deadlift in powerlifting history, beating out champions that have been working 10 years or more for that record. Those records will never be broken by a woman,” she said. 

The Canadian Powerlifting Union (CPU)’s gender self-identification Trans Inclusion Policy, announced earlier this year, allows athletes the choice of competiting with the gender they self-identify as vs. biological birth.

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Hutchinson, who said she has spoken with some federation board members, expressed her frustration over the policy.  

“I have written my federation I don’t know how many times about this matter. We had actually this past Sunday when Anne competed, we had athletes actually write to the federation prior to the competition telling them about Anne and the complete unfairness and dropping out. We had three people drop out. One competitor actually basically cut weight just to go into a different category so that she didn’t have to compete against Anne. So the federation is not listening.”

“I’ve actually spoken to board members of my federation, and a lot of them have said we don’t agree with it, but our hands are tied. We don’t want to get sued by not letting them compete,” she claimed.

The debate over transgender athletes has grown to involve dozens of sports including powerlifting. 

Even the International Chess Federation (FIDE) has ruled in the debate, announcing that transgender women are barred from competing in the organization’s official events for females until an assessment of gender change is made by officials.

Female athletes have continued to speak out about transgender inclusion policies, demanding protections for women’s sports.

“How can chess ban them and a pure strength sport such as powerlifting does not?” Hutchinson questioned. 

Fox News’ Scott Thompson and Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.