California makes rule change to girls' track and field championship after Trump's threats over trans athlete
California's track and field state championship is getting a last-minute tweak in its eligibility rules after President Donald Trump called out a transgender athlete controversy that's rocking the Golden State.
The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) provided a statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, just hours after Trump sent a Truth Social post threatening to withhold federal funding from the state, announcing the change. The competition will now include biologically female athletes that missed out on qualifying for the competition that may have placed higher were it not for a trans athlete's participation.
The federation claims it came to the decision at the end of this past weekend's CIF Masters Qualifiers round, days before Trump's statement. The statement also refers to the female competitors as "biological female student-athlete."
"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 and Education Code. With this in mind, the CIF will be implementing a pilot entry process for the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships," the statement read.
"Under this pilot entry process, any biological female student-athlete who would have earned the next qualifying mark for one of their Section's automatic qualifying entries in the CIF State meet, and did not achieve the CIF State at-large mark in the finals at their Section meet, was extended an opportunity to participate in the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships. The CIF believes this pilot entry process achieves the participation opportunities we seek to afford our student-athletes."
The CIF is already under a federal Title IX investigation by the U.S. Department of Education.
This change will result in at least two competitors qualifying to compete for the state title after falling just shy of the typical qualification threshold on Saturday. A trans-identified athlete competing as a girl for Jurupa Valley High School took first place in the triple jump and long jump on Saturday.
Trump did not identify the name of the school or athlete involved in the situation in his Truth Social post.
The Jurupa Unified School district has provided a statement to Fox News Digital addressing the president's recent post.
"JUSD is required to follow both California law and CIF policy regarding school athletics. Both state law and CIF policy currently require that students be permitted to participate in athletic teams and competitions consistent with their gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil's records. We remain committed to following the law as written and ensuring that all students are granted the rights afforded to them in a safe and welcoming environment," the statement read.
After Trump signed the "No Men's in Women's Sports" executive order on Feb. 5, the CIF was one of the first high school sports leagues in the country to announce it would not follow the order, and instead comply with California's state law.
The CIF came under scrutiny two weeks ago when Fox News Digital reported that CIF officials allegedly made girls' athletes take off their "Protect Girls Sports" t-shirts at a sectional qualifier. The federation acknowledged the incident to Fox News Digital.
"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," the CIF said in a statement at the time.
The U.S. Department of Education then sent a warning to the state over the situation via an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital on May 15 ahead of the Jurupa Valley's trans athlete competing in the sectional final.
"CIF's and Jurupa Valley High School's apparent flouting of federal civil rights law by allowing a male athlete to compete in a female California track and field [Southern Sectional Division 3 Final] this Saturday, and the alleged retaliation against the girls who are protesting this, is indefensible," Julie Hartman, a Department of Education spokeswoman, told Fox News Digital.
"We will not allow institutions to trample upon women's civil rights. OCR's investigation into CIF continues with vigor."
After losing to the trans athlete in long jump at the sectional final, La Canada High School's Katie McGuiness urged the CIF to quickly change its policy during an interview on Fox News' "America Reports."
"I have nothing against this athlete as a person and I have nothing against the trans community," McGuiness said. "My message today is really specifically to CIF and for them to act quickly and in a timely manner, because this is a really time-sensitive issue."
Trans athletes have been allowed to compete as women and girls since 2014, when a law called AB 1266 went into effect, after passing in 2013.
The law has enabled several controversial incidents involving trans athletes in girls' and women's sports in the state over the last year.
These include the San Jose State women's volleyball scandal that prompted a lawsuit against the school and state for restoring biological male Blaire Fleming without informing the rest of the female players, and a lawsuit against the Riverside Unified School District for giving a girls' cross-country roster spot to a trans athlete while scolding students for wearing "Save Girls Sports" t-shirts.
Meanwhile, Trump and his administration have put most of their attention involving countering the trans-athlete wave into Maine. A Department of Justice lawsuit against Governor Janet Mills, multiple temporary funding pauses and a Supreme Court case involving state lawmaker Laurel Libby being censured for calling out a minor trans athlete who won a girls' pole vault competition in February, has rocked the New England state for months.
But now, Trump has turned his eye to California, and the CIF is already working on accommodations to the backlash in the midst of its current spring track championship controversy.
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