(Reduxx) A male powerlifter who identifies as a “woman” set a women’s national record at a championship in Brandon, Manitoba, yesterday. Anne Andres, 40, currently holds multiple records in the female division, including women’s deadlift and bench press, and has placed first in nine out of the eleven competitions he has participated in over the past four years.
Andres appeared at the Canadian Powerlifting Union’s 2023 Western Canadian Championship yesterday, which was held at Brandon University’s Healthy Living Centre. Andres participated in the Female Masters Unequipped category, and beat out Michelle Kymanick and SuJan Gil for the first place award.
According to advance results obtained by Reduxx, Andres total powerlifting score was over 200kg more than the top-performing female in the same class – 597.5kg versus SuJan Gil’s 387.5kg total. A “total” is the sum of the heaviest weight lifted for the squat, bench press, and deadlift.
Andres’ total would have placed him amongst the top-performing male powerlifters in the entire championship had he participated in the men’s category.
According to a source who was present at the championship, Andres set both a Canadian women’s national record and an unofficial women’s world powerlifting record.
Boasting of his success, Andres shared videos to his Instagram account of his participation where he can be seen competing against female athletes while wearing pink socks and donning blue-dyed hair.
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“Today I did some lifting. Not just some lifting. I got to lift with friends from across Canada,” Andres wrote in one post. “Keep in mind I turned 40 a week ago so suddenly being master 1 is kind of hollow. That in mind, I got every masters [sic] record and two unofficial world masters records. I don’t care about records. I care about being there with my friends.”
The Western Canadian Championships was held under the umbrella of the Canadian Powerlifting Union (CPU), which announced a gender self-identification policy earlier this year. The policy, which garnered mass backlash from women’s rights advocates, explicitly allowed any males to participate in women’s competitions on the basis of self-declared “gender” alone.
In February, the CPU’s “Trans Inclusion Policy” was released, containing an explicit statement that the CPU supported allowing transgender powerlifters to participate in the sex category of their choosing based on a guidance from the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES).
“Based on this background and available evidence, the Expert Working Group felt that trans athletes should be able to participate in the gender with which they identify, regardless of whether or not they have undergone hormone therapy,” the document reads, deferring to the “inclusivity in sport” guidance from the CCES.
Just prior to the CPU’s announcement of a gender self-identification policy, Andres gained significant notoriety after sharing a video of himself appearing to mock female athletes, asking why female powerlifters were “so bad” at bench press.
Anne Andres (male who identifies and competes as a woman) doesn’t understand why female powerlifters are so “bad” at bench press….well idk Anne, but maybe it’s because you have 20 times more testosterone than them. Just a thought…. pic.twitter.com/klxd4WaoYc
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) February 17, 2023
