Verónica Garcia, a trans athlete, received her first 400-meter monitor and area state championship in Washington in 2024, and this yr, she secured one other victory, changing into a state champion within the women’ 2A 400-meter sprint for the second time in a row.
17-year-old Garcia, an East Valley Excessive College senior, beat her personal time from final yr, ending the race in 55.70 seconds.
In accordance with the Seattle Occasions, she’s the primary ever trans athlete to win this title.
Her participation within the competitors was met with booing from the group who yelled, “Let’s go women,” and “Women’ race.”
Earlier than the race, a person was noticed carrying a T-shirt that learn “Save ladies’s sports activities.” One other individual’s T-shirt learn, “Preserve Ladies’s Sports activities Feminine.”
In the course of the medal ceremony, the ret of the rivals have been cheered on whereas Garcia obtained booed by the group.
Reacting to the reactions from the group, Garcia stated, “I’ll be sincere, I sort of count on it,” in accordance with The New York Publish.
“Nevertheless it perhaps didn’t have their meant impact. It made me indignant, however not indignant as in, I needed to surrender, however indignant as in, I’m going to push.
“I’m going to place this in essentially the most PG-13 manner, I’m simply going to say it’s a rattling disgrace they don’t have anything higher to do. I hope they get a life. However oh nicely. It simply reveals who they’re as folks.”
Lauren Matthew, a West Valley junior, completed second in 56.75 seconds.
Whereas Matthew and teammate Quincy Andrews, who positioned fifth, have been absent from the award podium after the race, the group chanted her title when Garcia posed atop the rostrum.
Replace from Lauren Matthew, the actual state champ!🏆
XX≠XY https://t.co/XvC9iVbu4S pic.twitter.com/RHoh44uJYO
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) May 31, 2025
Andrews additionally shared her discontent, saying Matthew “ought to be successful state” as a result of “she’s the most effective girl.”
“She ought to have received state final yr, and that’s taken away from her, which isn’t truthful,” she advised Seattle Occasions.
Washington has allowed transgender student-athletes to compete primarily based on gender identification since 2007. Nonetheless, following President Trump’s govt order “Maintaining Males out of Ladies’s Sport,” federal investigations have focused inclusive insurance policies, together with one in Tumwater College District.
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