The California Southern Section track and field prelims on May 10 transformed from a competitive, post-season track meet into a contentious protest against transgender athletes in girls’ sports.
Student-athletes and spectators from three schools arrived to the event in pink shirts and other merchandise that read ‘Protect Girls Sports.’ The protestors held signs decrying both Jurupa Valley High School’s transgender student-athlete and CIF’s gender eligibility policy, and they hosted a small press conference before the meet. However, tensions rose when track meet officials asked the student-athletes wearing the shirts to remove them before entering the stadium.
CIF released a statement saying, “Per the CIF Southern Section Playoff Bulletin, all athletes must be dressed in proper, school issued, track uniforms. The student-athletes were asked to comply with this while in the on-field event area, as they were wearing said shirts over their school-issued uniform.”
However, the female student-athletes from Brea Olinda High School and Crean Lutheran High School spoke with Fox News and said, “the officials did not give the same orders to athletes wearing other non-school-uniform shirts without the ‘Protect Girls Sports’ message.”
“It was really clear that they only wanted our shirts off because of what we were supporting and didn't care about the actual role because of what the other athletes were wearing,” said Crean Lutheran student-athlete Olivia Viola.
According to Sports Illustrated, the three protesting schools “made it sound like their student-athletes weren't going to compete in protests (…) Their athletes did end up competing.”
The transgender student-athlete at the center of the conflict is a Junior at Jurupa Valley High School. She is currently the state leader in the triple jump and long jump, and at this week’s prelims, she placed in the top nine of all three of her events. The athlete has qualified for the CIF Southern Section Division 3 track and field finals.
Per CIF rules, only athletes who place in the top nine advance. This has left some of the protesting competitors who placed just behind the transgender student-athlete out of further competition.
