A transgender athlete in California claimed victory in two competitions over the weekend despite President Donald Trump’s threat to withhold funding.
Jurupa Valley High School junior AB Hernandez came in first place in the high jump and triple jump events, the New York Post reports. Two biological females, Jillene Wetteland and Lelanie Laruelle, shared the first-place podium with Hernandez.
The development comes as the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) announced a new “pilot entry process” for female athletes.
“The CIF values all of our student-athletes and we will continue to uphold our mission of providing students with the opportunity to belong, connect, and compete while complying with California law and Education Code. With this in mind, the CIF will be implementing a pilot entry process for the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships,” the statement read, explaining that “any biological female student-athlete who would have earned the next qualifying mark for one of their Section’s automatic qualifying entries in the CIF State meet, and did not achieve the CIF State at-large mark in the finals at their Section meet, was extended an opportunity to participate in the 2025 CIF State Track and Field Championships.”
President Trump said last week that “California, under the leadership of Radical Left Democrat Gavin Newscum, continues to ILLEGALLY allow ‘MEN TO PLAY IN WOMEN’S SPORTS.’”
Trump added that “large-scale Federal Funding will be held back, maybe permanently, if the Executive Order on this subject matter is not adhered to.”
A February executive order said that “it is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy.”
“It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth,” the order declared.
