After a high school freshman boy dominated a girls’ championship in New Hampshire, social media users reacted by calling him a “cheat.”
On May 20, at the Wilderness Championship, freshman Maelle Jacques finished first in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 5:27 and first in the high jump with a jump of 4 feet, 11 inches.
Social media users issued condemnatory responses to the news of Jacques’ domination of the two events.
“No. He didn’t win. Cheating is entering the building from the side door like the service maid does,” one commenter remarked.
“Pathetic cheating male,” another echoed.
“Cheat, he knows he’s a cheat, we know he’s a cheat, everyone knows he’s a MASSIVE CHEAT,” a third person added.
“So, basically, this tells me that a guy can grow pigtails and place in certain women’s events as a freshman? Good job erasing women,” a fourth user stated.
At the 2023 NHIAA Division III Track & Field Championships on May 24, Jacques finished second in the girls’ 1600 with a time of 5:32.39, less than two seconds behind the winner, Molly Ellison, who hails from the same high school, and fifth in the Girls High Jump.
The by-laws of the NHIAA state:
Gender Equity: Gender equity is an atmosphere and a reality where fair distribution of overall athletic opportunity and resources, proportionate to enrollment, are available to girls and boys, and where no student athlete, coach, or athletic administrator is discriminated against in any way in the athletic program on the basis of gender.
An athletic program is gender equitable when either the boys or the girls sports program would be pleased to accept as its own the overall program of the other gender. No student shall be denied the opportunity in any implied or explicit manner to participate in an extra-curricular activity because of the race, color, gender, religion, or national origin of the student …
In 2016, after the NHIAA’s previous policy that required transgender athletes to have taken hormones before they were allowed to compete had been jettisoned, Jeff Collins, executive director of the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association, said that the requirement was “unrealistic,” adding, “What it’s all about is: How do we accommodate these kids, and how do we make sure that they have a fulfilling high school experience? That’s what it really comes down to.”
John Stark Regional High School Principal Chris Corkery stated, “No kid is going to say, ‘Wear a skirt this month and go by Mary and we’ll win the championship.’ That’s just not going to happen.”