A transgender individual emerged as the victor at the Canadian Powerlifting Union's 2023 Western Canadian Championship in Brandon, Manitoba over the weekend.
Anne Andres, a 40-year-old trans-identifying man, outperformed his female competitors by a margin of over 200lbs, securing top honors in the Female Masters Unequipped category.
Even if he had competed in the male division, his performance would have still placed him at the pinnacle of the rankings.
According to results obtained by Reduxx, Andres achieved a total lift of 597.5 lbs across the squat, bench press, and deadlift events. The second-place finisher, SuJan Gil, managed a combined lift of 387.5 lbs.
Andres took to Instagram to celebrate his victory, acknowledging that turning 40 just a week prior made his achievement as a Master 1 somewhat bittersweet. He remarked, "That in mind, I got every masters record and two unofficial world masters records.
I don't care about records. I care about being there with my friends." He also attributed his subpar performance in the bench press to the slippery platform.
In a recently surfaced video from February, Andres expressed confusion over the quality of women's bench press in powerlifting competitions. He stated, "Why is women's bench so bad? Not compared to me; we all know that I'm a tranny freak, so that doesn't count... I mean standard bench in powerlifting competition for women, I literally don't understand why it's so bad."
Despite facing widespread criticism, Andres continues to be permitted to compete against women in powerlifting. Kristine Bayntum, a fellow lifter, shared her experience of competing against him during an interview with National Review in March.
She suspected that she was competing against a trans-identifying male at an event in 2019 but only confirmed it in 2023 when she saw a photo of Andres.
Bayntum expressed shock upon hearing a man's voice during the podium ceremony but initially believed it could have been a woman on testosterone. She admitted that she didn't dwell on it at the time, as she was simply happy to be there. However, upon discovering the truth, she felt upset about the situation.
Bayntum criticized the Canadian Powerlifting Union for its policy on trans-identifying athletes, highlighting the ease with which individuals can change their gender by completing a simple online form. Meanwhile, female athletes are consistently warned against using performance-enhancing drugs.
When the policy was introduced in March, powerlifting coach Avi Silverberg protested by changing his gender to compete in the women's division and subsequently broke records. Andres didn't like that and accused Silverberg of having "malicious intent" with this act.
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