'New Zealand's Strongest Man' enters women's powerlifting competition to protest its transgender policy, forcing organizers to change the rules overnight

A male weightlifter once dubbed "New Zealand's Strongest Man" applied last week to compete in a women's powerlifting competition. His intention was not to defeat women in the sport, but rather to discredit the notion that biological men don't have a physiological advantage over their female peers — an advantage which male transsexuals appear keen to simultaneously exploit and deny.

Global Powerlifting Committee New Zealand has since denied Dale Shepherd's application, adopting new rules over the weekend that will preclude him from taking the stage to make his point.

While Shepherd suggests the new rules are similarly "deficient," it appears that with his controversial application, he may have forced a shift in the right direction without having to break a sweat.

A weighty concern

Some middling male athletes have transitioned over to women's sports in recent years, ostensibly in hopes of leveraging their sex-specific biological advantages to displace female athletes, thereby securing prize money, sponsorships, and other spoils.

Perceiving this trend to be unfair and unsportsmanlike, a number of men in the world of weightlifting have taken action.

Dale Shepherd, 52, is one of a handful of men to protest gender identification policies and make a mockery of the trend of noncompetitive men seeking to try their odds against women.

The British rapper Nzube Olisaebuka Udezue, whose stage name is Zuby, did so in 2019.

The Times reported that Zuby, an Oxford graduate, beat the British women's deadlift record as well as the bench lift record, then joked that the stunt was "strong, stunning and brave."

Zuby said his protest "struck a nerve," demonstrating "the fallacies of the arguments on the other side."

"I have seen people saying there is no inherent biological strength difference between men and women. I posted it being a bit tongue-in-cheek, showing what I think is the obvious absurdity of their argument," said the British rapper.

TheBlaze recently reported that Avi Silverberg, former head coach for Team Canada Powerlifting, temporarily identified as a female on March 25 and demolished the women's record set by a male transsexual, Ann Andres, at the the Heroes Classic Powerlifting Meet in Lethbridge, Alberta.

Silverberg exploited the same 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 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."

Another Anglo nation, another lesson to be learned

Reduxx reported that Dale Shepherd has been lifting weights for over forty years. In his time competing against other men, he claimed roughly two dozen national records and held the "All Time Deadlift World Record" for nearly six years. In 2010, he won the title of "New Zealand's Strongest Man" and claimed four top spots at the 2022 Nationals.

Shepherd endeavored to mount a protest, entering to participate in the women's category for the June Global Powerlifting New Zealand Day of the Deadlifts competition.

"I identify as a woman for this contest," Shepherd declared on his entry form.

He told Reduxx, "It is important to me that both transgender athletes and biological women both have the ability to compete in sports.

"However, regardless of hormone treatment such as giving a biological male estrogen – the hormone primarily responsible for female characteristics – it does not totally negate all the years that male has had with higher testosterone levels resulting in greater bone density, tendon and muscle strength. As such biological women are at a significant disadvantage."

According to Reduxx, the women's rights group Save Women's Sports Australasia hyped Shepherd's protests with an April 14 tweet.

Exposing folly and forcing a change

Whereas the GPCNZ's rules archived before the last-minute changes deferred greatly to entrants' gender self-identification, the new rules specified that male transsexuals must have "declared that her gender identity is female. The declaration cannot be changed, for sporting purposes, for a minimum of four years."

Additionally, per the new rules, male transsexuals "must have undergone hormone treatment (if medically indicated) for at least 12 months prior to her first competition."

The rules specify further that "transgendered people who are not taking hormones ... will go under complete confidential review."

Stuff reported that GPCNZ spokesman and trustee Greg Turrell had spoken with Shepherd about his entry.

"I've clarified the rules with Dale. He is ineligible," said Turrell. "[But] there is provision for transgender women to compete in powerlifting as a whole."

While the GPCNZ's expedited adoption of the new criteria may make it harder for men to quickly make the crossover into women's powerlifting, those dead set on deadlifting among women may only need to avoid telegraphing their intentions as Shepherd had.

Turrell nevertheless admitted, "We need to balance the desire to be inclusive but protect the integrity of women's powerlifting."

Here is Shepherd crushing a 310 kg squat, a 207.5 kg bench press, and a 352.5 kg deadlift in 2017:

Dale Shepherd - NZs Heaviest Raw Deadlift & M2 IPL World Record U110kg Bench & Deadliftyoutu.be

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