Trans-Identifying Male Runner Wins Girls’ Washington State Championship Race… Again

The same trans-identifying male high schooler who dominated last year’s girls’ Washington state track high school championship did it again over the weekend.

Verónica Garcia, 17, snagged his second state title in two years when he won the girls’ 2A 400-meter race on Saturday.

In video of the race, Garcia can be seen crossing the finish line with a healthy lead over the second place runner.

Garcia, who runs on the girls’ team at East Valley High School, won the same race last year with a record-smashing time of 55.59, close to his time this year, 55.75.

Update from Lauren Matthew, the real state champ!🏆

XX≠XY https://t.co/XvC9iVbu4S pic.twitter.com/RHoh44uJYO

— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) May 31, 2025

Garcia was heckled and booed by the crowd both before and after the race.

One man wearing a shirt that read “Save women’s sports” reportedly shouted “Let’s go girls!” and “girls’ race!”

The crowd also reportedly cheered for every female runner during the medal ceremony, but booed when Garcia was announced as the winner.

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After the race, Garcia lashed out at his critics, saying said the heckling made him “angry” and want to win even more.

“I’ll be honest, I kind of expect it,” Garcia told The Seattle Times. “But it maybe didn’t have their intended effect. It made me angry, but not angry as in, I wanted to give up, but angry as in, I’m going to push.”

“I’m going to put this in the most PG-13 way, I’m just going to say it’s a damn shame they don’t have anything else better to do. I hope they get a life. But oh well. It just shows who they are as people.”

He previously placed near the bottom when he ran for the boys’ team several years ago. In October 2022, Garcia ran in the boys’ 5,000-meter junior varsity race and placed 164th out of 172.

Riley Gaines, the former University of Kentucky swimmer whose 2022 loss to trans-identifying male swimmer Lia Thomas helped ignite the battle to keep men out of women’s sports, praised the girl who placed second behind Garcia on Saturday.

“Congratulations to Lauren Matthew, the real Washington State Champion in the girls’ 400m,” Gaines posted on X.

In another post, Matthew appeared holding a sign that read “Washington State Track and Field Real Girls 2A 400m Champion.”

In 2007, Washington state became the first state to pass legislation allowing trans-identifying males to participate in women’s sports. However, state law now conflicts with President Donald Trump’s executive order banning federal funds for schools that allow males in girls’ sports.

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, which governs high school sports in the state, still allows trans-identifying students to compete on the team of the opposite sex.

In December, a group of 14 school districts proposed changing the policy to keep males off female teams, but ultimately, no action was taken.