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A Jurupa Valley High senior listed in results as AB Hernandez swept the girls’ long jump, triple jump and high jump at this month’s CIF Southern Section postseason meets, posting marks that outpaced the female field and earning a spot at the state meet in Clovis. California’s own reporting shows Hernandez cleared 5-8 in the high jump and recorded jumps around 20 feet in the long jump and just over 40 feet in the triple.
Officials tried to paper over the competitive reality by restoring a CIF “co-champion” podium workaround that awards additional gold medals and forces women to share the top step with a biological male, even when the measurements make the disparity obvious. That contrived podium photo op is being used as a PR shield while the eligibility rules that allowed this result remain intact.
The incident has blown up into a political firestorm, with national commentators and conservative hosts lambasting Governor Gavin Newsom and California policymakers for putting ideology ahead of fairness in girls’ athletics. Fox News’ own coverage and conservative outlets say this is not an isolated quirk but the predictable outcome of policies that prioritize identity politics over competitive integrity.
For parents and the girls who train every day on the track, this is more than rhetoric — it’s a real, measurable defeat. The Southern Section meets made clear that these policies produce repeatable competitive imbalances, and the state meet on May 29-30 will only amplify the clash between California’s policy experiments and common-sense fairness for female athletes.
Conservatives should not accept cosmetic fixes that merely change a podium photo while leaving the underlying rules untouched; that’s governance theater, not a solution. Critics argue — and the coverage confirms — that the “share the top step” approach is an optics bandage that admits the problem without fixing it, and that California’s approach should prompt lawmakers to step in and protect women’s sports.
This moment calls for action, not excuses: parents, coaches and legislators must demand policies that put girls on a level playing field and restore trust in high school competition. Americans who believe in fairness and common sense should make their voices heard, because our daughters deserve to compete against their peers — not against an experiment that rigs the scoreboard.
