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- Piers Morgan has criticized Laurel Hubbard, the first ever openly transgender Olympic athlete.
- 43-year-old Laurel Hubbard was named in New Zealand's weightlifting team on Monday.
- In a column this week, Morgan also made an unprovoked attack on Meghan Markle.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Piers Morgan took a bizarre, unprovoked dig at Meghan Markle, saying she has a "sensitive little spleen" in a column attacking the inclusion of the first ever openly transgender athlete at the Olympics Games.
On Monday, New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard became the first openly trans athlete in history to be picked to compete at the Olympics when she was selected by her country for the upcoming Tokyo Games.
The 43-year-old, who came out as transgender in 2013, will compete in the women's super-heavyweight category.
Hubbard became eligible to compete at the Olympics in 2015 when the International Olympic Committee changed its rules around transgender athletes.
Under the new rules, people assigned male at birth are permitted to compete in women's events without requiring sex-reassignment surgery if their testosterone levels are below a certain threshold.
Hubbard's testosterone levels fall within the allowed limit. As such, she is able to compete in Tokyo.
Despite her inclusion being allowed under Olympic rules, Morgan said in his column that Hubbard's selection in the New Zealand team is a "disaster for women's sport."
"Women born to female biological bodies are at a massive disadvantage to transgender women like Laurel Hubbard born to male biological bodies," he wrote in his Daily Mail column, a platform he has used to attack the likes of Naomi Osaka, Prince Harry and Meghan, and Khloé Kardashian in recent weeks.
"Why should Samoa's Feagaiga Stowers, who Hubbard beat to gold at the 2019 Pacific Games, now again have to face an opponent with such an unfair advantage?"
Morgan continued by claiming that if Hubbard wins a gold medal in Tokyo it would signal "the end of the Olympic dream as we know it."
"She will have only achieved the 'Faster, Higher, Stronger' goal by virtue of her superior male-body-originated strength.
Besides a Pacific Games gold medal in 2019, Hubbard's best international result is a second place finish in the 2017 world championships, and while she is expected to be a medal contender, it is unlikely she will win gold in Tokyo.
Morgan went on to say he supports "transgender rights to equality and fairness - but not when those rights damage women's rights to equality and fairness. This is unfair and unequal."
In the column, Morgan could not resist an opportunity to fire a shot at Meghan Markle, who he has consistently used his platform to attack in recent months.
Morgan referenced the former Royal Family member while writing about a hypothetical fight between himself and British female boxer Nicola Adams.
Earlier this month, Adams had jokingly challenged Morgan to a bout on Twitter after he said he was "identifying as female."
-Nicola Adams (@NicolaAdamsOBE) June 9, 2021
"The woke brigade loathe me enough as it is - can you imagine the reaction if I started trying to repeatedly punch a younger (Adams is 38, I'm 56) Black woman half my size on TV?" - said Morgan.
"Meghan Markle's sensitive little spleen would self-combust in fury as she choked on her kale smoothie in California."
It is unclear what exactly Morgan meant by the comment or why he chose to mention Markle, who has no clear link to either Adams or Hubbard.
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