California track-and-field final enters spotlight for rule change after trans athlete’s success

CLOVIS Calif AP California s high school track-and-field state championships kicked off Friday to a relatively quiet atmosphere despite disagreement leading up to the meet over the participation of a transgender athlete The meet is the testing ground for a new participation and medaling protocol for competitions that include transgender athletes The California Interscholastic Federation let an additional attendee compete and potentially offer an extra medal in three events in which a trans athlete is competing The athlete high school junior AB Hernandez is the second seed in the triple jump and will also participate in the long jump and high jump A small protest of fewer than people including parents gathered outside the stadium to oppose Hernandez s participation Several of them wore Save Girls Sports T-shirts It was quiet inside the stadium before the long jump and high jump events began But once Hernandez started her events a couple isolated protests occurred At one point as she was attempting a high jump someone in the stands yelled an insult Later on an aircraft began circling above the stadium carrying a banner that read No Boys in Girls Sports It may be the first effort by a high school sports governing body to expand participation when trans athletes are participating and it reflects efforts to find a middle ground in the debate over trans girls participation in youth sports The CIF values all of our student-athletes and we will continue to uphold our mission of providing students with the opportunity to belong connect and compete while complying with California law the group reported in a comment after announcing its rule change State law allows trans students to compete on sex-segregated sports teams consistent with their gender identity President Donald Trump threatened this week to pull federal funding from California unless it bars trans female athletes from competing on girls teams The U S Department of Justice also commented it would investigate the state federation and the district that includes Hernandez s high school to determine whether they violated federal sex discrimination law by allowing trans girls to compete in girls sports What the new participation and medaling agenda will look like The meet which is taking place at a high school near Fresno will open up the girls triple jump long jump and high jump to one additional athlete each who would have qualified had Hernandez not participated Hernandez will compete in the preliminaries Friday for a chance to advance to the finals Saturday Under the pilot guidelines if a transgender athlete medals their ranking would not displace a biological female attendee from medaling the federation commented The federation revealed the rule would open the field to more biological female athletes One expert declared the change may itself be discriminatory because it creates an extra spot for biological female athletes but not for other trans athletes The federation did not specify how they define biological female or how they would verify whether a competitor meets that definition Biological experts say gender is a spectrum not a binary structure consisting of only males and females The two-day meet is expected to draw attention from a coalition of protesting parents and students Critics have objected Hernandez s participation and heckled her in qualifying events earlier this month Leaders from the conservative California Family Council joined Republican state lawmakers Thursday for a press conference blasting the protocol change and saying Hernandez shouldn t be allowed to compete If they have to create special exceptions and backdoor rule changes to placate frustrated athletes that s not equality that s a confession Sophia Lorey the council s outreach director revealed in a declaration Girls sports should be for girls full stop CIF Executive Director Ron Nocetti urged participants and bystanders to behave respectfully toward all student-athletes in a message shared in the championship undertaking Nationwide debate over trans athletes participation A current AP-NORC poll detected that about in U S adults think transgender female athletes should not be allowed to participate in girls and women s sports at the high school college or professional level That view was shared by about in Republicans and roughly half of Democrats Hernandez described the publication Capital Main earlier this month that she couldn t worry about critics I m still a child you re an adult and for you to act like a child shows how you are as a person she disclosed She noted that she has lost specific of her events saying that disproved arguments that she can t be beat Hernandez is expected to perform well particularly in the triple jump in which she has a personal best of over feet meters That is more than feet meter short of a national record set in She s the fifth seed in the long jump but ranked much lower in the high jump California s state championship stands out from that of other states because of the number of competitors athletes are up against to qualify More than high schoolers participated in outdoor track and field in California during the - school year according to a survey by the National Federation of State High School Associations California had the second-largest number of high school outdoor track-and-field athletes only behind Texas Of the high school athletes who have set national records in the girls triple jump between and eight have been from California according to the national sports governing body Davis Whitfield the national federation s chief operating officer called a state championship the pinnacle for high school student-athletes It s certainly a once-in-a-lifetime experience in particular cases to participate in a state championship event he revealed Austin is a corps member for The Associated Press Description for America Statehouse News Initiative Document for America is a nonprofit national amenity project that places journalists in local newsrooms to overview on undercovered issues Follow Austin on X sophieadanna Source