Transgender athlete wins girls high jump event at California track and field finals as protests rage amid controversy
A transgender athlete won first place in the high jump at a California high school track-and-field championship late Saturday and shared the podium with two biological females due to a newly passed California policy.
AB Hernandez, a transgender high school student athlete, placed first in the girls' high jump, finishing the event with no failed attempts and setting the high mark of 5 feet, 7 inches.
Two biological females, Jillene Wetteland and Lelanie Laruelle, also cleared that high jump mark and shared the first-place podium with Hernandez despite each having a failed attempt thanks to a policy established earlier this week.
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3 Jurupa Valley High School junior AB Hernandez competes in the girls' high jump at the California high school track & field championships in Clovis, Calif. on May 31, 2025.
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Hernandez also placed second in the long jump.
The California Interscholastic Federation changed its rules on Tuesday to mandate that any biological females who lost to a trans-athlete would not lose their place — meaning no female winners would be displaced by Hernandez' performance.
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The new rule also allowed an extra biological female student-athlete to compete in each category in which Hernandez was set to perform.
The change came in the wake of criticism over the federation's handling of Hernandez' success, including from President Donald Trump who threatened to withhold funding from the Golden State.
'California, under the leadership of Radical Left Democrat Gavin Newscum, continues to ILLEGALLY allow 'MEN TO PLAY IN WOMEN'S SPORTS,'' Trump wrote on Truth Social, Tuesday.
3 AB Hernandez laughs with a female high jumper during the medal ceremony after winning the girls' high jump gold.
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3 AB Hernandez poses with the runner-ups of the high jump event.
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'THIS IS NOT FAIR, AND TOTALLY DEMEANING TO WOMEN AND GIRLS. Please be hereby advised that large scale Federal Funding will be held back, maybe permanently, if the Executive Order on this subject matter is not totally adhered to,' the president concluded.
That executive order threatened to strip federal funding from states that don't bar transgender athletes from competing in women's sports.
During the competition, a plane circled over the stadium for an hour, pulling behind it a banner that read 'No Boys in Girls' Sports!,' which was sponsored by activist groups the Independent Council on Women's Sports and Women Are Real.
Some folks in the crowd of the competition wore pink bracelets that read 'Save Girls' Sports' in protest of Hernandez.
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