Latest news with #Eckard
New York Post
a day ago
- General
- New York Post
Oregon track star who refused to share podium with trans athlete reveals alleged conversation with officials after protest
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. Advertisement 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. @LaLONeill/X '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. Advertisement '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. Fox News Advertisement 4 A meet officials tells Eckard and Anderson to move away from the platform during the pictures. @LaLONeill/X 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. Advertisement '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. @LaLONeill/X Advertisement 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
Fox News
2 days ago
- General
- Fox News
Oregon girl alleges track meet official ordered her to 'get out of the photo' after protesting trans athlete
Oregon high school senior Alexa Anderson garnered national attention on Saturday when she refused to share the high jump medal podium with a trans athlete at a state track and field championship meet. Viral footage of Anderson and fellow girl athlete Reese Eckard stepping down from the podium also showed an official gesturing for them to step to the side. Anderson alleges the official ordered her and Eckard to get out of the shot of photos if they were not going to stand on the podium. "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,'" Anderson alleged during an interview on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" Monday night. "They asked us to move away from the medal stand, so when they took the photos, we weren't even in it at all." Fox News Digital has reached out to the Oregon School Activities Association for comment. The incident comes weeks after high school sports officials in California allegedly ordered athletes to take off "Protect Girls Sports" T-shirts at a postseason meet featuring a trans athlete. Anderson added that Saturday was her first time ever competing against a transgender athlete, but she has opposed trans inclusion in girls' sports prior to that and expressed her belief through social media comments. "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. Anderson, of Tigard High School, finished in third place in the high jump and Eckard, of Sherwood High School, came in fourth, while the trans athlete, of Ida B. Wells High School, took fifth. "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 and Eckard's situation was only one of many instances of girls having to share competition and medal podiums with biological males at state meets this past weekend. In California, a nationally-publicized incident involving trans athlete AB Hernandez of Jurupa Valley High School culminated in Hernandez winning two state titles. President Donald Trump warned the state not to let trans athletes compete in the girls' state title meet, and the Department of Justice has now given California a deadline of June 9 to revise its policy or federal funding cuts may occur. In Washington, a trans athlete at East Valley High School won the girls' 400-meter 2A state title on Saturday. In response, multiple girls at Tumwater High School, which was at the center of a controversy involving a girls' basketball player being reprimanded for refusing to face a trans opponent in the winter, protested Monday during school hours with a large banner sign that read, "This is not a walk out (sic). We are not going anywhere." Other girls' postseason track and field meets that saw trans athletes compete this weekend took place in Maine and Minnesota. The America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a nonpartisan research institute, filed a Title IX discrimination complaint against Oregon for its laws that allow biological males to compete in girls' sports on May 27. The complaint was filed to the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, which has already launched Title IX investigations against high school sports leagues in California, Minnesota, Maine and Massachusetts. "Every girl deserves a fair shot – on the field, on the podium, and in life," said Jessica Hart Steinmann, AFPI's executive general counsel and vice chair of the Center for Litigation, in a statement. "When state institutions knowingly force young women to compete against biological males, they're violating federal law and sending a devastating message to female athletes across the country." Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Sky News AU
3 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Girls' track and field athletes standing next to trans competitor step down from podium at Oregon state championship
A pair of girls' track and field athletes have stepped off the podium alongside a transgender athlete for high jump at a state championship event. A pair of girls' track and field athletes did not stand on the medal podium alongside a transgender athlete for high jump at the Oregon state championship on Saturday night. Footage obtained by Fox News Digital showed the two high school seniors, Reese Eckard of Sherwood High School and Alexa Anderson of Tigard High School, step down from their respective spots on the podium next to a trans athlete who represented Ida B. Wells High School. Eckard, in fourth place, and Anderson, in third, each finished ahead of the trans athlete, who tied for fifth place. But the two females faced the opposite direction as the other competitors received their medals from officials. The footage then showed an official confront the two young women, and gesture for them to move away. Eckard and Anderson were then seen walking away from the podium and standing off to the side. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Oregon School Activities Association for a response. The trans athlete previously competed in the boys' category in 2023 and 2024, Fox News Digital previously reported. Eckard and Anderson were praised for not standing on the podium on social media, and were even shouted out by prominent conservative activist Riley Gaines. "We didn't refuse to stand on the podium out of hate. We did it because someone has to say this isn't right. In order to protect the integrity and fairness of girls sports we must stand up for what is right," Anderson said in a statement to Fox News Digital. Girls and women making symbolic gestures to protest trans inclusion in sports has become a growing trend in 2025. On May 17 at a California track and field sectional final, Reese Hogan of Crean Lutheran High School stepped from the second-place spot onto the first-place medal podium after her trans opponent, AB Hernandez stepped down from it. Hogan's stunt was lauded on social media by Gaines and others. On April 2, footage of women's fencer Stephanie Turner kneeling to protest a trans opponent at a competition in Maryland, and subsequently getting punished for it, went viral and ignited global awareness and scrutiny against USA Fencing. Oregon is one of many Democratic-controlled states that saw transgender athletes compete in girls' track and field championships this weekend, with other highly-publicized incidents taking place in California, Washington, Maine and Minnesota. — Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 1, 2025 The America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a nonpartisan research institute, filed a Title IX discrimination complaint against Oregon for its laws that allow biological males to compete in girls' sports on May 27. The complaint was filed to the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, which has already launched Title IX investigations against the high school sports leagues in California, Minnesota, Maine and Massachusetts. "Every girl deserves a fair shot – on the field, on the podium, and in life," said Jessica Hart Steinmann, AFPI's executive general counsel and vice chair of the Center for Litigation, in a statement. "When state institutions knowingly force young women to compete against biological males, they're violating federal law and sending a devastating message to female athletes across the country." President Donald Trump signed the "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" executive order on Feb. 5 and his administration has made combating the continued enabling of trans athletes in girls' sports by Democratic states a priority. The U.S. Department of Justice has already launched a lawsuit against Maine for its defiance of Trump's executive order, and the president suggested on Tuesday that federal funding pauses could be coming against California amid the situation involving Hernandez. Originally published as Girls' track and field athletes standing next to trans competitor step down from podium at Oregon state championship
