Female powerlifter slams 'two-tier' system that favors trans athletes after being banned from sport for criticizing rival

A female powerlifter has hit out at what she calls a 'two-tier system' that 'favors' transgender athletes after her suspension doubled that of a competitor who was born male.

April Hutchinson was punished by the Canadian Powerlifting Union with a two-year suspension after she appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored last year, when she remarked on the 'physical advantages that a male has over a female.' 

She specifically named transgender powerlifter Anne Andres, who set an unofficial women's world record last year, in her remarks.

After hiring an attorney and appealing her suspension through a third-party agency, Hutchinson was eventually able to get her suspension reduced down to one year.

But Andres - who has been accused of bullying, discrimination, harassment and racist behavior for comparing herself to ethnic minorities as well as 'wishing death upon' at least one other powerlifter - was suspended for just six months.

Hutchinson now says the discrepancy between their two punishments is evidence of a 'two-tier system, almost like favoritism, of how transgender individuals get treated compared to a woman that is just fighting for fairness in the women's category.'

'Mind you, all along I was just asking for a separate category,' Hutchinson told DailyMail.com on Monday. 

In one instance, Andres posted about a law passed in Alberta that bans transgender women from competing in women's sports and attacked the Premier of Alberta Danielle Smith as well as people who supported the legislation - forcing others to call the police on her, Hutchinson said.

'May your generation die painfully and leave the youth to inherit a better world,' Andres said in the post. 

'The same f***ing arguments against trans inclusions has [sic] been used historically against black inclusion.'

One person who filed a complaint against Andres said 'as a black woman,' Andres comparisons make her feel uncomfortable and unsafe.

Andres allegedly also harassed female athletes who did not want to compete against biological males by blasting them on social media.

The complaints continue to say Andres accused the Alberta Powerlifting Union of requesting her medical records and wanting to look at children's genitals, which the union denies.

She also allegedly accused female Canadian Powerlifting Union members of 'making profit off of hate,' and wished death on some members. 

The union eventually made its own complaints against Andres, Hutchinson said as she accused her opponent of wanting 'to touch people at volunteer events.'

She now says Andres' punishment for the alleged behavior 'pales in comparison to what I faced' for fighting 'for fairness in the women's category.'

Hutchinson has argued that having Andres compete against biological females creates an uneven playing field in her sport.

Andres currently holds multiple powerlifting records in the women's division, and in 2023, she competed at the Canadian Powerlifting Union's 2023 Western Canadian Championship.

Her total powerlifting score was 597.5kg (the total sum of the heaviest weight lifted in squat, bench and deadlift.) This was more than 200kg than her next nearest competitor, SuJan Gill, at 387.5kg.

Following Andres' victory, Hutchinson shared her frustration in a fiery opinion piece for DailyMail.com where she pleaded for fairness in the sport and slammed Andres for mocking her female rivals as 'weak.'

She claimed that Andres was 'taking to social media to mock females, to belittle us as weak, to rub it in our faces.'

At one point Andres even characterized a female rival as having 'little T-Rex arms'.

Hutchinson also said that when Andres won another contest, watching her put a stuffed toy T-Rex on the podium appeared particularly pointed - especially as she noted that the only two others on the podium were only there as every other competitor had dropped out.

'Andres was taking away podium spots and basically getting records, that shouldn't be,' Hutchinson argued last year.

'It just doesn't give women a fair chance at sport, it's not an even playing field. Why spend money on federations or a sport when you're just set up to fail or to lose, when there's just so many physical advantages that a man has?

'There's a reason why men why sports have men and women categories. We do deserve like fair sports and to have men in our in our sport. I mean, it's, it's not fair. 

'There's a reason why there's, Paralympics, there's different categories - men's, women's, weight classes,' Hutchinson said at the time.

She now says that if nothing is done to prevent biological male athletes from competing against female athletes, 'basically the female category will be erased.'

'Men will keep dominating the female category, and when I say dominating, I don't just mean earning medals, it's taking scholarships away from women, prize money - there's many different ways,' Hutchinson said.

To prevent this, she recommends female athletes boycott competitions against transgender females.

She noted that she, herself, has refused to compete against Andres - even though she showed up to nationals.

Instead, Hutchinson said she organized a protest, with 16 other female athletes eventually joining her.

'I think it's a good thing for women to ban together,' she said.

But, she said, it should not always be up to the women to stand up for themselves.

'These policymakers should be stepping up to protect women,' Hutchinson argued, of the leaders of the federations governing sports in each country.

If they don't, Hutchinson suggested the female athletes start suing the federations.

'Women need to ban together, they need to sue and they need to boycott,' she said. 

'I guess my main message is women, we got to stop going along with it.'

If a female athlete cannot stand down or boycott an event, Hutchinson said they should 'try to reach out to the federation and be a policymakers.

'Use your voice, try to be an advocate,' she urged. 

'If you can ban together, talk to other female athletes, reach out to me, reach out to Riley Gaines. There's people out there.' 

She says she will continue to be there for other female athletes - and said she has no regrets about speaking up, even with the suspension. 

'If I got suspended for 10 years, I don't care because it was worth it. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat,' Hutchinson told DailyMail.com.

She described standing up for female athletes as 'honestly one of the best things I've ever done,' and noted she will be able to get back to weightlifting in November.