Transgender weightlifter stripped of women's titles after drug test confirms male gender

Powerlifter Mary Gregory — a biological male who completes as a female — made headlines last month after breaking multiple women's p...

Powerlifter Mary Gregory — a biological male who completes as a female — made headlines last month after breaking multiple women's powerlifting records, which sparked widespread outrage.

Gregory set records in four divisions: Masters world squat, open world bench press, masters world deadlift, and masters world total.

"As a transgender lifter I was unsure what to expect going into this meet and everyone — all the spotters, loaders, referees, staff, meet director, all made me welcome and treated me as just another female lifter," Gregory wrote after the meet. "Thank you!"

But after a review, the Raw Powerlifting Federation has stripped the weightlifter of the titles because it determined Gregory was not eligible to compete as a woman.

What are the details?

Following its investigation into Gregory's victories, Raw Powerlifting Federation President Paul Bossi released a comprehensive statement explaining why the federation stripped Gregory of the titles.

"Our rules, and the basis of separating genders for competition, are based on physiological classification rather than identification. On the basis of all information presented to the board of directors for this particular case, the conclusion made, is that the correct physiological classification is male," Bossi explained.

"Since the lifter's gender classification for the purpose of our rules is not consistent with female, no female records will be broken by these lifts," he added.

The federation's statement explained that Gregory's drug test further confirmed that the athlete is "actually a male in the process of becoming a transgender female."

How did Gregory respond?

Outsports reported that Gregory was "infuriated" by Bossi's statement, especially since the weightlifter has been taking female hormones for about the past year.

"I feel like I'm being tarred and feathered as this person who got in there, competing against 50 women, and just stomping all over them, and won by some magnificent total," Gregory said. "Not to denigrate my own accomplishments or achievements, I'm so very proud of them, but the numbers that I lifted aren't class leading."

Raw Powerlifting also revoked Gregory's trophies.