Male powerlifting coach crushes female bench record previously set by male transsexual — just to prove a point

Ann Andres is a biological male who claims to be a woman. He has placed first in multiple women's weightlifting competitions in Canada and holds the record for women's bench in the province of Alberta. He has gone so far in recent months as to ridicule the real women who compete against him.

Team Canada's former male powerlifting coach Avi Silverberg has evidently had enough of noncompetitive men migrating to women's sports and gender self-identification policies in powerlifting. Over the weekend, he temporarily identified as a transgender and demolished Andres' record.

What's the background?

Andres is technically Alberta's powerlift record holder for bench and deadlifts in the women's category.

According to Open Powerlifting, Andres' personal bests are 440.9 pounds for squat; 275.5 pounds for bench; and 545.6 pounds for deadlift.

The transsexual athlete has won eight out of the nine female competitions he has entered since 2019.

The Independent Council on Women’s Sports, an advocacy group seeking to protect women's sports from male infiltrators, indicated that outrage mounted after Andres added insult to injury, having denigrated his competitors and claiming women's bench is "so bad."

Andres said in a video posted to Instagram, "Why is women’s bench so bad? I mean, not compared to me, we all know that I’m a tranny freak so that doesn’t count. And no, we’re not talking about Mackenzie Lee, she’s got little T-rex arms and she’s like 400 pounds of chest muscle apparently."

"Standard bench in powerlifting competition for women, I literally don’t know why it’s so bad," Andres reiterated. "My son, he weighs 45 pounds. His max bench is like 33, I’m legit seeing some women in competition who are doing something like 50 pounds, and I just don’t understand it."

Beaten at his own game

Avi Silverberg was the former head coach for Team Canada Powerlifting, beginning in 2012. He has since coached over 4,500 attempts in international competitions.

On March 25, Silverberg decided to temporarily identify as a woman — not to remedy possible dysphoria but as a means of protest. The newly minted transgender then attended the Heroes Classic Powerlifting Meet in Lethbridge, Alberta.

The meet reportedly adhered to the Canadian Powerlifting Union's gender self-identification policy, announced earlier this year.

The policy states, "Individuals participating in development and recreational sport ... should be able to participate in the gender with which they identify and not be subject to requirements for disclosure of personal information beyond those required of cisgender athletes. Nor should there be any requirement for hormonal therapy or surgery."

"Hormone therapy should not be required for an individual to participate in high-performance sport," added the document. "Individuals should not be required to disclose their trans identity or history to the sport organization in order to participate in high-performance sport."

Silverberg exploited this gender policy as Andres had, then tested the transsexual athlete's record with him watching.

Not only did the male coach beat Andres' record, he cleared it by nearly 100 pounds. Andres had previously lifted 275 pounds. Silverberg casually pressed 370 pounds.

The Independent Council on Women’s Sports noted on Twitter that "Avi Silverberg just broke the Alberta WOMEN's bench press record in the 84+ kg category at the 'Heroes Classic.'"

ICONS told the feminist publication Reduxx, "What Avi so obviously points out is that policies allowing men access to women’s sports completely remove any integrity in women’s competitions."

"It doesn’t matter how Avi expresses himself or perceives himself. He clearly does not belong in women’s sport, and neither does any other male regardless of their motivation for wanting to participate," added the women's advocacy group.

Canadian weightlifter and YouTuber Greg Doucette lauded Silverberg's weighty protest, stating, "How long before the powers that be suddenly wake up and smell the coffee and understand that if you're born a female, you're not going to be as powerful, as strong, as tall, as big ... as if you were born a male."

"To me, the answer is simple: We add a separate category, a new category, the trans category," said Doucette.

Editor's note: This article has been corrected to note that Silverberg is a former, rather than the current, coach of Team Canada powerlifting.

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