A male athlete named AB Hernandez won three events at a girls sectional final tournament in California over the weekend, forcing female athletes to share the podium with him.
Still, the athlete’s mother believes her son is the real victim.
Hernandez, from Jurupa Valley High School, took first place in the girls long jump, high jump, and triple jump at the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Section finals in Division 3.
Due to new rules, female athletes who would have won first place if it were not for Hernandez, a male, participating in the girls contest, had to share the first place spot on the podium.
Hernandez was not present at one ceremony, but later shared a spot with female winner Gwynneth Mureika, according to OutKick. At another ceremony, the female athlete did not show up and Hernandez had the top spot on the podium to himself.
The trans-identifying athlete’s mother shared a post from “Rainbow Families Action” on Instagram, which excoriated the new rules and claimed Hernandez was the one being bullied.
“All these big tough ex-athletes at CIF, and the most courage they could muster was to hand this to coaches at AB’s meet today,” the post said, captioning a letter about the new rules that allow female athletes to advance and share the podium.
“Not one of them was brave enough to look her or her mother in the eye and say ‘This whole project of violating Ed Code is aimed at you. A child,'” the post continued. “Government sanctioned bullying of a kid?”
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Hernandez, who also dominates in girls’ volleyball, is moving on to compete against top female track athletes in the state and will likely advance to the state finals, which are set to start on May 29. Last year, Hernandez won gold in the female triple jump and high jump at the state finals. He also took home the silver in the long jump.
In response to California allowing boys to compete in girls’ sports, the Trump Department of Justice in 2025 sued the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) over violations of Title IX.
Related: Male Dominates Girls’ Track At California State Finals Despite Trump Threat
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