Female powerlifter speaks out against trans athlete who shattered women's record: 'Slap in the face'
Powerlifter April Hutchinson joined 'Fox & Friends' to discuss why she believes letting the powerlifter compete is 'unfair' and the broader fight for fairness in female sports.
A competitive female powerlifter is outraged after a transgender athlete set a new record in the women's division.
"I keep using the word ‘disheartening’ over and over again," powerlifter April Hutchinson said. "It's outrageous. It's a big slap in the face to women that the federation, after all of this time and all these letters, even legal letters, have not stepped up and protected women in sports."
Hutchinson detailed the event where 40-year-old biological male Anne Andres toppled the competition on "Fox & Friends" on Friday.
Andres competed in the Female Masters Unequipped category at the Canadian Powerlifting Union’s 2023 Western Canadian Championship on Sunday. The transgender athlete currently holds multiple powerlifting records in the female division.
"Where he lives in Manitoba or BC area, the western area, there are some supporters. But at the same time, a lot of people, for example, at the competition on Sunday had no idea Anne was a man," Hutchinson said.
"The one woman on the side of the podium on Sunday had no idea the man was a man. Some people just kind of clap along. They don't know what's going on. Some people don't even know what the word ‘transgender’ means. That's why I called him a man. Because if you start throwing around words, people get confused. So you kind of have to call a spade a spade."
Andres' 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.
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With that total, Andres set a new Canadian women’s national record and an unofficial women’s world record.
"Those records will never, ever be broken by a biological female," Hutchinson argued.
"That deadlift, for example… that is something that top athletes who have been training for 10 years and more have not yet achieved. They've been busting their butt off trying to get that. And he literally just strolled in and did it. No problem."
The athlete's outrage did not stop with Andres or the event Sunday. Hutchinson expressed her frustration with the transgender inclusion policies of the Canadian Powerlifting Union (CPU).
"It's the only powerlifting federation that has a trans-inclusion policy," she claimed.
The CPU announced a gender self-identification policy earlier this year, allowing athletes to "participate in the gender with which they identify, regardless of whether or not they have undergone hormone therapy."
The policy was based on guidance provided by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports.
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"So there's no policy at all to protect women," Hutchinson responded. "My boyfriend, who's a big 6-foot-4 firefighter, could walk into a competition tomorrow, say he feels like a woman that day, go compete, crush records and the next day go back to being a man."
Hutchinson also referred to Avi Silverberg, a male powerlifting coach who competed as a woman to protest transgender athletes in women's competitions.
At the Heroes Classic Powerlifting Meet, Silverberg took advantage of a CPU policy to send a message to the sports world that biological men have an advantage when competing in women’s sports. He decided to "self-identify" as a woman and shattered a record during the recent meet.
"He went in, identified as a woman, and he took up the records for bench records in February. So, I mean, it's been done and men are going to keep doing it to make a mockery of the federation," Hutchinson said.
Andres was also at that meet competing against Silverberg and was the women’s bench press titleholder in the 84+ kilogram category. At that time, Andres had won eight of the nine competitions he entered as a woman and is even recognized as a female on the Open Powerlifting ranking site.
Hutchinson also criticized what she calls a "ridiculous" trend growing in popularity — gender-less neopronouns.
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"Riley Gaines and I were talking about the new neopronouns list the other day, where people are identifying as bugs and all this and that. You can do whatever you want, but you can't make people do the same thing," she said.
CNN raised eyebrows last week by publishing a detailed explainer on the use of "gender-neutral or nonbinary pronouns" like "leaf," "sun" and "star."
"I'm not going to subject my brain cells to the thing," Hutchinson said. "I live in reality. I'm not delusional… I call a spade a spade. It's too much."
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Fox News' Scott Thompson, Kassy Dillon and Yael Halon contributed to this report.
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