MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. The women’s sports may become to be extinct with the arrival of male transgender athletes, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

"A male declares to become a female and competes, let us suppose, in weightlifting or any other sports competition," Putin said during his traditional end-of-the-year news conference in Moscow. "This is the end to female sports [in this case]. Where is a common sense here?"

Laurel Hubbard, a transgender from New Zealand debuted this year at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo in women’s weightlifting competitions, but failed to clear the opening stage in the 87-kilograms weight category.

Hubbard, who was a male athlete when he was born and then changed gender to female in 2012, won a silver medal of the 2017 World Weightlifting Championships in the women’s under 90-kg weight category.

Russian President Putin held his customary year-end news conference on December 23. Only 507 reporters were invited this year since restrictive measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 are in effect.

This year his conference kicked off at 12:12 Moscow Time and lasted for 3 hours and 56 minutes. The president fielded the questions of 44 people, focusing on both domestic and international issues.