Sports must be fair if they are to be worthwhile. One basic way that sports are kept fair is that women compete against other women, not against men, who tend to be faster and stronger than female athletes. In California, however, fairness has been pushed out the window by some male athletes. After beating women athletes in the long jump, triple jump, and high jump, biological male AB Hernandez stood on the podium with them and will be moving on to compete for a women’s state championship medal.
Track and field events, measured objectively by times and distances, make obvious the disparities between men and women athletes, the reason for Title IX protections. In April at the London Marathon, Sebastian Sawe of Kenya became the first man to run a world-record-qualifying marathon in under two hours, covering the 26.2 miles in 1:59:30. Yomif Kejelcha followed Sawe across the finish line in 1:59:41. In the same race, Tigst Assefa set a new women-only world record, crossing the line in 2:15:41, 16 minutes behind Kejelcha, the second-place male.
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Sawe’s smashing of the two-hour marathon barrier is reminiscent of Roger Banister’s first-ever sub-four-minute mile back in 1954. Both feats also demonstrate why women compete against other women, and not against men. More than 70 years after Roger Banister broke the four-minute barrier, the women’s world record in the mile, set last June, is 4:06.42. Just as a 16-minute difference is in the marathon, 6.4 seconds in the mile is a massive gap. And, the men’s record is much faster, at 3:43.13, more than 20 seconds faster than the women’s record.
None of this is to disparage the athleticism of these women. A 2:15:41 marathon requires running an average mile pace of 5:11, something most men could not do for one lap on a track, much less the more than 100 it would take to cover the marathon distance. But more than 500 men have recorded marathons under 2:15 so far in 2026. If women had to compete against men, it just would not be fair.
California, though, lets high school biological boys compete against girls if they identify as female. Thus, one biological boy, AB Hernandez, is headed to the California state championships in long jump, high jump, and triple jump after he out-jumped the girls in his region. In Hernandez’s case, his leads over the girls were relatively small given his biological advantages: Hernandez’s 40’7” triple jump was 1’ 2.75” above the first girl, his 20’ 0.75” long jump was 6.25” ahead of the first girl, and his 5’8” high jump was just 2” above the first girl.
Had AB Hernandez competed against the men at that meet, he would have been dead last in the long jump and triple jump — the winning jumps were 22’11.75” and 47’4.5”, respectively. And Hernandez would have been 6” short of clearing the 6’2” opening height of the high jump, which had a winning height of 6’10”.
The state’s high school athletic association, the California Interscholastic Federation, nonetheless awarded him a gold medal and a place in the state championship meet.
But even in the land of Hollywood, reality shines through. Under CIF’s rules, if a male competing with girls finishes first, the first-place girl is also awarded a gold medal and must share the top podium with her male competitor. This preposterous arrangement is both insulting to the excellence of the young women who earned their spot on the podium and a clear sign that reality demands attention.
Hernandez’s mother reported that she told her son, “This is a [midterm] election year,” and that “[t]hey’re gonna hit us hard, because they’re using us for their campaigns.” For Hernandez’s mother, she and her son are the victims, not the girls who suffer the indignity of competing against a boy and sharing a podium with him.
Hernandez is headed to the California state track and field championships and may well subject girls in the long jump, high jump, and triple jump to the indignity of the shared podium. Speaking of the shared podium policy, Hernandez’s mother said, “It’s kind of like [Hernandez] is nonexistent. [Hernandez] puts in the work, [Hernandez] participates, but [Hernandez] wants to be honored. [Hernandez] wants to be acknowledged as the person, as the athlete [Hernandez] is.”
Hernandez can and should be recognized as the athlete that he is — and that can come through him practicing and competing with fellow boys. The only thing that Hernandez loses by competing with boys instead of girls is the titles he wrongfully takes from them.
Of course, that’s what the girls he is competing against want, too.
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The state first implemented this policy last year after the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the state for discriminating against girls in women’s sports. That suit, which is ongoing, seeks to enforce President Donald Trump’s February 2025 executive order directing the Education secretary to “prioritize Title IX enforcement” to protect women’s and girls’ sports and sensitive spaces such as locker rooms.
The Trump administration’s efforts on this front are admirable. Girls compete against girls for a reason. The numbers do not lie, and, try as it might, California cannot change reality. It’s time to get the boys out of girls’ sports and honor their athletic achievement. California’s state track and field meet is this weekend. It’s not too late, but I won’t be holding my breath.