A male athlete swept the girls’ jumping events at California’s CIF Southern Section finals, claiming victories in high jump, long jump, and triple jump by margins that left no doubt about physical reality. Officials, bound by state law and ideology, responded not by restoring fairness but by engineering duplicate gold medals and shared podiums.
This spectacle—viral images of a male athlete atop the winners’ stand alongside displaced girls—exposes the predictable failure of California’s experiment in erasing sex-based categories in sports.
The episode repeats a now-familiar pattern. AB Hernandez of Jurupa Valley High School dominated once again, winning the long jump by over 16 inches and the triple jump by nearly two feet while edging out competitors in the high jump.
CIF’s awkward “pilot program,” revived for these meets, elevated biological females who finished immediately behind Hernandez to co-champion status. The result: awkward shared top spots on the podium, a bureaucratic band-aid that satisfies neither fairness nor inclusion.
Politicians and activists rightly called out the absurdity. The shared podium mocked the very concept of championship while pretending to honor all participants. Rep. Tim Burchett and others highlighted what common sense has long recognized: males retain significant physical advantages post-puberty in strength, speed, and leverage events like jumping.
Riley Gaines, a vocal defender of women’s sports, and former Nike executive Jennifer Sey amplified the images that spread rapidly across social media, forcing the issue back into national view.
California’s response remains tone-deaf. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office framed critics as bullies while insisting on “fairness, dignity, and respect” for all kids. Yet the dignity of female athletes—those who trained, competed, and lost podium spots to biology—receives scant mention. State law since 2013 has prioritized gender identity over sex, a policy signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown and defended despite federal pushback. President Trump’s administration previously sued under Title IX, and the underlying tensions persist.
This is not compassion; it is institutional capture by gender ideology. Sports exist as a domain where biological differences matter profoundly. Denying this reality does not advance equality—it erases the protected category of female athletics that Title IX was designed to secure. Girls who pour years into training find their records, scholarships, and opportunities diluted or displaced. The shared podium offers no victory for them, only a visual testament to policy failure.
Parents at the meet voiced frustration directly to reporters. Coaches relayed the sudden revival of the pilot program, underscoring how administrators scramble to manage optics without addressing root causes. Protests outside earlier rounds drew hundreds, reflecting broader parental revolt against rules that place male bodies in girls’ competitions.
Defenders invoke inclusion, but inclusion cannot come at the expense of fairness and safety. Biological males competing in female categories undermine the purpose of sex-segregated sports. Data from multiple studies and real-world results in swimming, weightlifting, boxing, and track consistently show retained male advantages. California’s approach—duplicate medals and rhetorical appeals to dignity—avoids this evidence while punishing the very athletes it claims to protect.
One is reminded of the ancient warning against calling good evil and evil good. As Isaiah 5:20 declares, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.”
Modern institutions have inverted reality in the name of progress, demanding society applaud what biology and common sense reject. True justice protects the vulnerable—here, female athletes—rather than sacrificing them on the altar of ideology.
The path forward requires courage: separate categories by biological sex, as nearly every culture and athletic governing body did until recently. Federal enforcement of Title IX, state-level protections, and parental pressure offer hope.
California’s latest controversy should serve not as a model but as a cautionary tale. When government and institutions prioritize feelings over facts, girls pay the price—on the track, on the podium, and in the broader pursuit of excellence.
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