Veronica Garcia, a transgender track and field athlete in Washington State who recently won the 400-meter high school women’s race and, in the process, won much notoriety, is now claiming that there was “unsportsmanlike” behavior exhibited, namely in the form of rude comments and unenthusiastic gestured, by the other athletes at the meet and the watching crowd.
As background, Garcia won the race by a large lead, finishing with a 55.75 time. That was a full second faster than the second-place competitor’s finishing time of 56.75 seconds, with the times provided by the Pacific Northwest Track and Field Officials’ track scoreboard, Fox News Digital reported in its article on the matter.
Garcia then spoke to the Spokesman-Review, a local paper, about the issue of fans and fellow competitors not being particularly congratulatory after the race. The Spokesman-Review reported that though there were cheers for the other athletes when they received their medals, that was very much not the case when Garcia’s first-place medal was awarded, with the crowd instead falling silent and the other runners standing with their hands behind their backs. Then, a voice in the crowd yelled, “She’s not a girl!”
Commenting on the matter, Garcia said, “I guess maybe I expected sportsmanship because I was cheering the rest of them on when they were called. So I guess I expected to get that reciprocated. But I didn’t get that.” Garcia then said, speaking about the shout from the crowd and unenthusiastic response, “I’m just a teenager. I wish people would remember that.”
East Valley Athletic Director Eric Vermaire, commenting to the Spokesman-Review, said that he did not want the issue of Garcia’s participation to overshadow the team’s performance and enthusiasm generally, saying, “Verónica contributed – no doubt about it. But it was a group of girls that did something as a team, and they are elated.”
Vermaire also pushed back against criticism leveled at the school for its allowing Garcia’s participation, saying that the law has “laid out” that schools should respond to transgender athlete participation matters in the way that East Valley did. He said, “People feel like we’ve done something that we shouldn’t have done, but we are doing everything the way it is laid out for us.”
Acknowledging as much, WIAA spokesperson Sean Bessette said, “The WIAA considers numerous personal, political, and religious beliefs of communities that join the Association. Many of these beliefs do not align, resulting in a conflict among the diverse groups the Association serves. For this reason, the WIAA Executive Board has been advised to follow state and federal law.”
The WIAA rules provide, “The WIAA encourages participation for all students regardless of their gender identity or expression. Further, most local, state, and federal rules and regulations require schools to provide transgender and other gender-diverse student-athletes with equal opportunities to participate in athletics. The purpose of this policy is to offer clarity concerning the participation of trans and gender-diverse student-athletes. Additionally, this policy encourages a culture in which student-athletes can compete in a safe and supportive environment, free of discrimination.”
On the other side of things, however, Beth Daranciang, a Republican running for a state House seat in Washington state, said, speaking of Garcia’s eligibility, “It just seems very unfair.” Daranciang added, “Sports are based on physical competition. It’s not based on identity. So that’s why we should keep sports based on the physical distinctions between males and females.”
Watch the end of the 400 meter race here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
"*" indicates required fields