As the CIF State Track and Field Finals in Clovis approach this weekend, the AB Hernandez story has gone global and Donald Trump has led the charge against her in a posting today (5/27). The President wrote about Hernandez: “As a Male, he was a less than average competitor. As a Female, this transitioned person is practically unbeatable. THIS IS NOT FAIR AND TOTALLY DEMEANING TO WOMEN AND GIRLS.”
The UK’s Daily Mail picked up a piece of dismal journalism from the NY Post on May 22 that features the complaints of two athletes who have recently competed against Hernandez and protested vehemently when they lost to her. The premise of Trump’s posting and these articles is that AB Hernandez represents a looming crisis in women’s sports as a large array of “biologically male” athletes will come to dominate women’s sports and deprive the next generation of female athletes a chance to compete fairly and enjoy the fruits of victory.
The two female athletes who have received a lot of attention over the past few days because they feel it is unfair that they must compete against a “biological boy” do not provide compelling evidence in support of their complaint. These two young female athletes are Reese Hogan of Crean Lutheran High School and Katie McGuinness of La Cañada High School. The Hogan complaint is easy to dismiss. The McGuinness story is a little more complex.
Reese Hogan is simply a poor sport who appears to be most interested in becoming the center of attention in the attack on transgender identity that is behind the assault on Hernandez. She recently got national attention after ascending to the 1st -place podium even though she took second to Hernandez in the triple-jump.
The problem is that young Ms. Hogan was competing against the best female triple-jumper in the state, and Reese is nowhere near being that. Her jump at the competition measured 37’2” and set not only a personal record but also a school record. That nevertheless is far from what it would take to be ranked among the best in the state. Ms. Hogan would need to add more than 2.5’ to her jump to be ranked in the top 5 in the state. There are probably dozens of female triple-jumpers in the state with better jumps than Ms. Hogan. She should be embarrassed, but evidently humility and sportsmanship are not virtues pursued by the staff at Crean Lutheran High School.
The so-called journalists who write these stories up should be even more embarrassed. They are the adults feeding the anti-trans hysteria and giving these teenagers a forum to further it as if they are the ones being persecuted.
Here are the top five Triple Jumps in California this year, according to Athletic.net. The national high school female record is 44’-11 ¼ ”. AB Hernandez is very good, but far from the best high school female triple-jumper ever!
Unlike Reese Hogan, Katie McGuinness is an elite athlete; but her story too seems to contain a certain amount of opportunism. McGuinness of La Cañada is the number one ranked girls long jumper in the state, having beaten AB Hernandez at the recent CIF southern sectional finals and having set the best mark in the state in doing so at 20’4”. As such, she enters the state CIF Finals as the favorite to win it all.
The following week, however, McGuinness lost to Hernandez with a jump of 18’9”. She said, “I ran down the runway and I landed and I watched them measure my mark, and it was 18.9. And I just remember thinking that there was nothing else that I could do.” What about jumping like you did a week earlier? Who is being more dishonest here, the student athlete or the journalist?
Here are the current state rankings heading into the CIF state finals, according to Athletic.net. The high school female long jump record was set a decade ago at 22’5”. AB is very beatable in this event, but only if you are good enough!
Again, it is difficult to know whether to blame the young women for jumping to the spotlight in a compelling though fundamentally dishonest story or to blame what passes for journalism in the adult world.
I am not a journalist and it is possible that I have misunderstood some facts here. I very much invite your corrections and admonitions. Really! Am I missing something?
Here is the current effort of CIF to mitigate this crisis. It seems more of a surrender of principle than a reasonable compromise.
AB’s poise and focus are even more admirable in comparison to these shameful shenanigans. She sets an example of hard work, maturity, and integrity that other student athletes (and adults!) would do well to emulate.
Great to see real journalism!
You are absolutely correct.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/nancy-armour/2025/05/28/trump-puts-teenager-risk-california-track-meet/83885094007/
Here’s a good article on the topic by someone who has been covering it for a while.
What defines “Trans” in the case of AB Hernandez? Hormone therapy? Has he undergone a sex change surgery?
If Hernandez can take female hormones, shouldn’t his young women competitors be able to take MALE hormones to make it even?
If Hernandez takes hormones, it should disqualify him because athletes are regularly tested for steroids and such.
In the long past, some boys that were promising opera stars castrated themselves. They had the strength of a man but kept their high range singing voice.
If Hernandez wants to compete equally with women, he should play the piano, like Vern..
Your history is as bad as your biology. We spay and neuter animals all the time. It changes them in so many ways. Google the difference between a steer and a bull and apply that to your castrati example.
Women and men produce testosterone at wildly varying levels. Should we have a testosterone measure for all competitions?
Your problem is that you deny the very existence of transgender individuals because you absolutize the notion of gender assigned at birth. Again, not at all scientific.
Gender is not “assigned” at birth. It is recognized at birth (or even in utero via ultrasound). Gender is determined by science (biology) at conception by chromosomal pairings. Gender dysphoria is real, no doubt, but it’s a mental deficiency that should be recognized as such, and treated as such, and not “supported” to the point that boys and girls go through irreversible treatments that will forever damage them.
And while you are googling castration, check out the difference between bull manure and steer manure and understand why one is good for fertilizer and the other is not. The difference between bull and steer manure is relevant to agronomy but also makes a powerful metaphor.
Talk about needless regulation! The CIF, with the endorsement of Governor Newsom, has decided to take the exception of AB Hernandez and build a framework of rules around it. AB is an outstanding athlete, but not yet close to setting the female record for the events she competes in. Nevertheless, the CIF found it necessary to changes the rules for qualifying to compete at the state meet as well as the awards that will be issued. Both proposed solutions raise more problems than they resolve.
The first part of this pilot process would allow any “biological female” to qualify for the state meet if a transgender athlete’s performance disqualified her. In this instance, two additional “biological female” athletes will be allowed to compete (assuming that there was not a tie) in the two events where AB qualified, the triple jump and the long jump. (AB did not qualify in the high jump.). There are commonly 18 athletes in the long jump and triple jump based on qualifying divisional meets and “at-large” competitions.
This will presumably raise the number of competitors to 19. While the two who thus qualify will have the honor of competing against the state’s best, they are unlikely to win a medal at the event. The at-large standard for the girls triple jump is 37’6”. Reese Hogan (37’2”) would not qualify, even though she has set her school record for this event. The qualifying long jump is 18’3”. Has anything of significance changed by this alteration to the rules?
The problem gets worse with the change to the rules for medals. Awards will be going to both the top cisgender and transgender female athlete in the two relevant events. While AB Hernandez is likely to win the triple jump, her first-place award will be somewhat diminished by the first-place award issued to the cisgender female who did not meet Hernandez’ standard. A little bit concerning, but not a major concern on the scale of global tragedies the world faces.
What if, however, Kate McGuinness or some other cisgender female wins the long-jump, as she may very well do? Does awarding Hernandez the “other” first-place trophy diminish McGuinness’ achievement?
Democrats are trying to do everything they can to make this issue go away in the quickest possible manner. Republicans are trying to use Hernandez as the embodiment of the perversity of the “woke” agenda and therefore a winning political tactic. The Republicans are probably right. As much as we might want to focus elsewhere, Republicans will compel us to engage this topic regardless. This is a teaching moment.
A correction. AB Hernandez qualified in three events. In addition to the long jump and triple jump, she qualified in the high jump. I’ll try and update later tonight after the qualification for tomorrow’s finals.
Hernandez qualified for the finals in all three events.
Has this 16-year-old child undergone full sex reassignment surgery?
That question alone should give us pause—if the answer is yes, it suggests the procedure likely occurred at an even younger age, which is horrifying.
If the answer is no, then female athletes are being forced to compete against a biologically male individual who is taking hormones and presenting as female, despite remaining physically intact.
This situation raises serious concerns. While adults can make personal decisions about their bodies, allowing a minor to make irreversible medical changes in response to feelings they may later outgrow is deeply troubling. To affirm and act on a child’s developing identity in such a permanent way can cross into the realm of medical harm and, arguably, child abuse.