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EXCLUSIVE: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office told Pak Gazette Digital on Tuesday that it will investigate a recent weightlifting competition in which a biological man competed against a woman.
Trans athlete Jammie Booker initially won the World’s Strongest Woman 2025 award in Arlington, Texas, over the weekend, prompting competitor Andrea Thompson, who finished second, to walk off the podium in protest. The Official Strongman organization later announced that Booker would be “disqualified”, giving Thompson first place.
Still, Paxton is now cracking down.
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton during the Republican National Convention (RNC) at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Attorney General Paxton will not allow the radical left to sacrifice the integrity of women’s sports for the sake of their delusional transgender agenda. The OAG is investigating this incident and will take any and all action to protect women’s sports both in Texas and across the country,” Paxton’s office said in a statement.
Paxton previously filed a lawsuit against US Masters Swimming for allowing trans athletes to compete in a competition in San Antonio earlier this year.
A YouTube video from what appears to be Booker’s own channel, dating back to 2017, shows Booker claiming to be “trans.”
According Strongman ArchivesBooker had not competed in women’s events before last June. It is unclear if Booker had previously competed as a man.
A video showing Thompson stepping off the podium and saying, “This is nonsense…” has gone viral in recent days, prompting significant criticism from women’s sports rights activists.
“This is a fraud, against the athletes, against the organizers,” Independent Council for Women’s Sports (ICONS) co-founder Kim Jones told Pak Gazette Digital.
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Andrea Thompson (left) finished second behind an alleged transgender athlete in the World’s Strongest Woman 2025 competition. (Laurence Shahlaei)
“Female athletes deserve transparency, honesty, and the basic assurance that the competitors standing next to them are, in fact, women. That’s why sex-based eligibility and sex screening are essential. Without them, situations like this will continue to blindside women and undermine all competitions…Women have fought too hard, for too long, to have their sports taken away in plain sight. This cannot continue.”
Thompson has suddenly become a prominent figure in the movement to protect women’s sports from male competitors, and her recognition as a champion is now celebrated as a high point in the movement.
Thompson shared a post from her coach, Laurence Shahlaei, congratulating her on “winning” the event. Shahlaei made the post on Monday, a day after the event. Shahlaei told Pak Gazette Digital just before Strongman’s announcement that he had been told Thompson would be crowned champion and that an official announcement would be made.
“This victory has not been without controversy, but I want to make it very clear that while I support and applaud people for being who they want to be, sport is sport and the women’s classes exist for a reason,” Shahlaei wrote.
Officer Strongman has said he was not aware of Booker’s biological sex when the competition occurred.
“If we had been aware, or if this had been declared at any time before or during the competition, this athlete would not have been allowed to compete in the Women’s Open category. We are clear: competitors can only compete in the category based on the biological sex registered at birth,” official Strongman said in an announcement Tuesday.
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“Official Strongman is inclusive and prides itself on organizing events that do not discriminate against athletes based on their personal characteristics. Any athlete is welcome. But it is our responsibility to ensure fairness and ensure that athletes are assigned to male or female categories based on whether they are registered as male or female at birth.”
Pak Gazette Digital reached out to Strongman Official for a response to Paxton’s statement.
