Oregon track star who refused to share podium with trans athlete reveals alleged conversation with officials after protest

New York Post

04-06-2025

An Oregon high school track and field star who refused to share a podium with a transgender athlete during the girls' high jump medal ceremony alleged officials told her to move away from the ceremony if she wasn't going to participate.
Tigard High School's Alexa Anderson went viral when she protested the conclusion of the Oregon State Athletic Association's Girls High Jump finale at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., on May 31.
Anderson and Sherwood High School's Reese Eckard, who finished in third and fourth place, stood behind the ascending podium in the infield during the ceremony because they refused to stand next to Ida B. Wells High School transgender student Liaa Rose, who placed fifth.
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4 Tigard High School's Alexa Anderson went viral when she protested the conclusion of the Oregon State Athletic Association's Girls High Jump finale at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., on May 31.
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'We stepped off the podium in protest and, as you can see, the official kind of told us 'hey, go over there, if you're not going to participate, get out of the photos,'' she told Fox News' 'The Ingraham Angle.'
Anderson, a University of South Alabama commit, alleged that the area where they were told to stand was out of the view of the photographers.
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'They asked us to move away from the medal stand, so when they took the photos, we weren't even in it at all,' she told the outlet.
Anderson and Eckard had synchronously stepped off their respective platforms and turned their backs to the podium as the names of the top eight finishers were announced.
An official spotted them and pointed them away from the podium, frustrating Anderson.
4 Alexa Anderson, a University of South Alabama commit, alleged that the area where they were told to stand was out of the view of the photographers.
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4 A meet officials tells Eckard and Anderson to move away from the platform during the pictures.
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Rose jumped 5 feet and 1.65 inches in the competition, behind Eckard's 5 feet 3 inches and Anderson's 5 feet 4.25 inches.
Anderson and Eckard, both seniors, felt it was unfair for them to compete against a transgender opponent who competed in the boys division in 2023 and 2024.
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'It's unfair because biological males and biological females compete at such different levels that letting a biological male into our competition is taking up space and opportunities from all these hardworking women, the girl in ninth who should have came in eighth and had that podium spot taken away from her, as well as many others,' Anderson said.
Anderson said it was the first time she publicly protested a transgender athlete but had always supported other females who took a stand against the controversial policy in high school sports.
'This is the first public stand that I have taken in this issue, but I have privately supported all the girls that have done with positive messages, commenting on posts, just supporting them and letting them know I'm behind them in any way,' Anderson said.
At the same time as Anderson's protest, transgender athlete Verónica Garcia won the state Class 2A 400-meter dash in nearby Washington.
Garcia won the race by over a second and called out the critics for the dominating win against biological females.
'I'll be honest, I kind of expect it,' Garcia told the outlet.
'But it maybe didn't have their intended effect. It made me angry, but not angry as in, I wanted to give up, but angry as in, I'm going to push,' Garcia said after the race.
4 Anderson and Eckard, both seniors, felt it was unfair for them to compete against a transgender opponent who competed in the boys division in 2023 and 2024.
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The 17-year-old senior from East Valley High School had made Washington State last year by being the first transgender athlete to win a title.
'I'm going to put this in the most PG-13 way, I'm just going to say it's a damn shame they don't have anything else better to do. I hope they get a life. But oh well. It just shows who they are as people,' she added.
With Post wires