Olympics’ First Openly Transgender Woman Stokes Debate on Fairness

Laurel Hubbard at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. She had returned to competition a year earlier after a 15-year break.Credit...Paul Childs/ReutersTOKYO — When Laurel Hubbard, a 43-year-old weight lifter from New Zealand, makes her first attempt in the women’s heavyweight competition on Monday, she will become the first openly transgender female athlete to compete at the Olympics.

Yet she will do so amid a debate over whether she should be at the Games at all.

Athletes, advocates for women’s sports and fair-sport campaigners have questioned whether Hubbard, who competed in men’s competitions before quitting the sport more than a decade ago, has an unfair advantage. Others believe the Games’…