Albertans react to trans athlete Laurel Hubbard competing in women’s powerlifting competition

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As you likely know, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games were delayed last year due to COVID restrictions, but they are now well underway. There has been no shortage of interesting stories at the Olympics, but people don’t seem to be talking about the games as much as previous years. So we took to the downtown river’s edge of Calgary, Alberta to ask people if they’ve been watching and if any stories have stood out to them.

So far, the Canadian women have been cleaning up, but at the time of filming, only a single Canadian male athlete had managed to reach the podium. Since then, a few more men have won some medals. We asked people if they had any idea why the men were struggling while the women have done so well.

People also discussed perhaps the two most controversial stories from this year’s Olympics: firstly, Laurel Hubbard, the New Zealand-based trans athlete competing in the women’s powerlifting competition, and secondly, American gymnast Simone Biles, who opted out of several events citing concern about her focus and headspace.

After a year and a half of limited travel and very few events, many were just happy to see the games going ahead, as they signal some semblance of a return to normalcy.