by WorldTribune Staff, June 18, 2024 Contract With Our Readers
Biological males who identify as females won state championships in girl’s track and field this spring in Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Oregon, and Washington state.
“Transgender students may represent only a tiny percentage of high school athletes, but they enjoyed disproportionate success this year in girls’ track and field state championships,” Valerie Richardson wrote for The Washington Times on Sunday.
Biological males winning competition girl’s outdoor track and field this season include:
• Lizzy Bidwell, a junior at Connecticut’s Conard High School, won the triple jump with a leap of 36 feet, 8 inches, which was 14 inches longer than the runner-up at the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class LL Girls Championships in New Britain. Bidwell was also the runner-up in the long jump and high jump, amassing points that helped Conard take second place at the May 29 championship meet.
• Maelle Jacques, a sophomore at New Hampshire’s Kearsarge Regional High School, won the girls’ high jump May 18 at the Wilderness Track and Field Championship and also placed second in the 1,600-meter run.
• Soren Stark-Chessa, a sophomore at Maine Coast Waldorf School who competes for North Yarmouth Academy, won the 800-meter race June 1 at the Maine Class C State Championship in Standish with a time of 2.19.72. That finish was a full 10 seconds faster than that of the silver medalist, Natalie Johnson, who timed in at 2:29.84.
• Aayden Gallagher, a sophomore at Oregon’s McDaniel High School, won the girls’ 200-meter dash May 18 at the Oregon School Activities Association 6A Track and Field State Championships in Eugene. Gallagher also took second in the 400-meter run.
• Veronica Garcia, a junior at Washington’s East Valley High School, won the girls’ 2A 400-meter run May 25 at the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association’s 2A, 3A, 4A State Championship Meet in Tacoma. Garcia, who won the 400 at all seven meets ahead of the state championships, was also a top competitor this year in the 1,600-meters, 3,200-meters, 300-meter hurdles, and 4X400 relay. Asked about the state victory, Garcia told a local reporter: “I don’t know. Maybe just another day in the office. Nothing special for me. I just run.”
All-American swimmer Marshi Smith, co-founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, or ICONS, told the Washington Times: “It’s tragic to witness the absurdity of boys dominating girls’ high school sports, with no leadership in these states stepping up to defend girls.”
Twenty-four states have passed measures which prohibit biological males from competing in female scholastic sports based on gender identity, and another state could soon join their ranks.
“It’s heartbreaking that girls across half the country must consistently compete on an unlevel playing field, with no policymakers defending their hard work and accomplishments,” said Smith, who won the 100-yard backstroke title at the NCAA Division I women’s swimming championships in 2005.
More high schoolers participate in outdoor track and field than any other sport. In the 2022-23 academic year, there were 1,091,338 students involved in outdoor track, and 486,355 of those were girls, according to a LendingTree analysis of National Federation of State High School Associations data.
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