The California Interscholastic Federation has announced more concessions to female competitors ahead of the state track championships, seeking to contain a transgender-athlete uproar as the Trump administration turns up the heat.
The federation will now award medals to any girls bumped from the podium by a male-born athlete at this weekend’s state high school track-and-field championships, a compromise issued after President Trump threatened Tuesday to pull the state’s federal funding.
“[I]f necessary, in the high jump, triple jump and long jump events at the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships, a biological female student-athlete who would have earned a specific placement on the podium will also be awarded the medal for that place and the results will be reflected in the recording of the event,” said the federation in a late Wednesday “follow-up” to its Tuesday statement.
The organization made no mention of transgender athletes, but the policy change only affects the three events featuring Jurupa Valley High School junior A.B. Hernandez, a biological male whose dominance in girls’ track has forced the state to confront the issue of fairness in female sports.
The federation had previously announced that it would add qualifying spots for girls bumped from the state championship as part of a “pilot entry process.” The latest update also creates slots for any female athlete who fails to qualify by one spot from the Saturday finals.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said he approves of the revisions, calling them “reasonable” and “thoughtful,” but advocates for single-sex female sports said the tweaks fall well short of ensuring fairness.
“This is not a solution. It’s an admission of failure and it’s still discrimination,” said Sonja Shaw, Chino Valley Unified Board of Education president, in a Thursday email. “President Trump needs to pull the funding now because it’s clear Newsom and CIF are playing games with our daughters’ futures.”
She said the federation’s decision to compensate female athletes with qualifying and podium slots comes as an acknowledgement that there’s something wrong with allowing biological males in girls’ sports.
“Let’s be honest: This change only confirms what we’ve been saying all along and that is girls are being pushed out of their own sports. And CIF knows it,” Ms. Shaw said. “Instead of standing firm for biological fairness from the start, they’re piloting a process that still allows males to compete against females and calling it progress.”
Certainly the Trump administration is paying attention. The Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights said Wednesday that it has joined the federal investigation into whether the state has violated Title IX by allowing male-born athletes in female sports.
Sophia Lorey, California Family Council outreach director, called the state rule changes “completely inadequate.”
“It’s clear even CIF knows boys in girls’ sports isn’t fair,” said Ms. Lorey. “If they have to create backdoor rule changes and quietly hand out two of the same medals to girls bumped off the podium by a male athlete, that’s not equality, it’s a confession. Girls’ sports should be for girls only, full stop.”
Others said the decision to award two medals if necessary – one to a female athlete, one to Hernandez – essentially creates a third gender category, a potential solution that transgender advocates have opposed for years.
Karleigh Webb, a transgender writer for Outsports, accused the federation of bowing to “political pressure from wannabe office seekers with an axe to grind, anti-trans spoilsports, and the Trump Administration’s use of transphobia.”
“If AB Hernandez wins, why should she have to share the spoils with someone else if [it’s] not a tie?” she asked in a Thursday op-ed. “That’s what professional transphobes like Jennifer Sey and Riley Gaines try to sell. Awarding a duplicate medal gives their nonsense credence to the detriment of the sport and the athletes.”
Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener, a state leader on LGBTQ issues, called Mr. Trump’s threat to pull federal funding “another chapter in Donald Trump’s war on transgender people” and urged the state to fight back.
“So, at some point, as a state, you have to draw the line and say ’No.’ That’s the response to bullies,” Mr. Wiener told KQED, the state’s public television and radio station.
He encouraged the state to follow Maine’s lead and sue the Trump administration if it cuts off federal funding. Maine won a court order earlier this month to restore USDA funds after they were frozen in response to the administration’s findings of Title IX violations.
“He’s now targeting California just like he targeted Maine: Threatening federal funds if CA doesn’t follow his edicts targeting trans people,” Mr. Wiener said in a post on Bluesky. “CA law protects trans people. That won’t change. Maine won in court. So will CA.”
Qualifying heats for the state championships will be held Friday at Buchanan High School in Clovis, with the top 12 finishers in each jump moving on to the Saturday finals.
Among those competing in the high jump will be Katie McGuinness, a senior at La Canada High School, who placed second to Hernandez in the May 17 sectional final.
In an interview with Capital & Main, Hernandez emphasized that “I’ve trained so hard, I mean, hours of conditioning every day, five days a week,” but McGuinness said that training alone can’t explain the athlete’s success.
“All these athletes work really hard and I’m sure AB works hard too,” McGuinness told Fox News Channel, “but there are just certain genetic advantages that biological males have that biological girls don’t have.”
