Trans wins girls' race year after 72nd place in boys' race

FPI / November 20, 2022

A biological male who now identifies as a female took first place in a Seattle girls' conference cross country competition one year after finishing 72nd in the boys' division of the same race.

The Seattle Academy sophomore won this year's Emerald South Conference Championships in the 5,000-meter cross country run girls division with a time of 19:14.5. Last year, the student finished in 72nd place in the boys division with a 20:40.6 time.

In the Nov. 5 Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) 1A State Finals, the Seattle Academy student finished in 18th place with a time of 20:31.3. Had the sophomore competed in the boys division, the time would have been good for just a 145th-place finish.

In 2007, the WIAA adopted the International Olympic Committee’s position that transgender people can participate in sports in their reassigned gender as long as they had undergone surgery and had a minimum of two years of hormone treatments. Eleven years later, the association then updated its stance, saying a male-to-female student “must have one calendar year of medically documented testosterone suppression therapy to be eligible to participate on a female team.”

Last year, however, the WIAA eliminated all requirements of medical evaluation, stating that athletes can participate in activities in “a manner that is consistent with their gender identity.”

“Athletes will participate in programs consistent with their gender identity or the gender most consistently expressed,” the WIAA said. “School personnel responsible for student eligibility will work collaboratively with the student-athlete to determine eligibility.”

In this year's girls' competitions, the Seattle Academy runner has not finished worse than 22nd place. In the boys' division last year, the student never finished ahead of 25th place.

"[The student] is larger than any of the girls, and shamelessly takes first place on the podium," the father of a female competitor told Libs of TikTok. "Now my daughter is competing against a male for scholarships. And we can’t even say anything. You can’t even approach it in a nice way without being labeled a hateful bigot. You will get threats against you."

A coach in the Emerald South Conference told Libs of TikTok: "Allowing [the student] to compete against biological girls deprives other girls' teams of the chance to compete at state [which is a big deal]. If [she] competed in the boys division, [she] would place 56th on the boys team."

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