AB Hernandez grins on podium as trans athlete wins state championship despite ‘violent' protests over competition
TRANS athlete AB Hernandez was seen grinning and flaunting medals after defeating female rivals at
the California state track championship.
Hernandez claimed gold in the high jump and triple jump at the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) state finals - defying
's executive order that
.
Advertisement
9
AB Hernandez, center left, shares the first-place spot on the podium with Kira Gant Hatcher during a medal ceremony for the triple jump
Credit: AP
9
AB Hernandez, center, flashes a victory sign as sharing the first-place spot on the podium with Jillene Wetteland, left, and Lelani Laruelle during a medal ceremony
Credit: AP
9
Hernandez was seen grinning and flaunting medals
Credit: AP
9
Hernandez of Jurupa Valley competes in the girls' long jump during the CIF State Track and Field Championships
Credit: Getty
9
Demonstrators hold signs outside the Veteran's Memorial Stadium during the California high school track-and-field championships in Clovis, California
Credit: AP
Trump had said on
social media
that he was 'ordering local authorities, if necessary, to not allow' Hernandez to compete.
But the CIF this week introduced a new policy that allowed an additional student to compete and win medals in the events where Hernandez qualified.
This is why the trans athlete shared winning spots with at least one female rival.
Advertisement
read more on the row
Hernandez claimed tied-first place in the varsity high jump final alongside Lelani Laruelle and Jillene Wetteland - both females.
The trans athlete later won another first-place in the triple jump, sharing the top spot with Kira Gant Hatcher - who trailed by just over a half-meter.
But the sports row surrounding Hernandez took a dramatic turn yesterday after furious protesters gathered around the stadium to denounce the trans teen.
They were seen carrying placards and boards outside the Veterans' Memorial Stadium, where the sporting event took place.
Advertisement
Most read in The US Sun
Breaking
Exclusive
Exclusive
A banner
reading
"NO BOYS IN GIRLS' SPORTS!" was flown above the sporting venue during the high school track-and-field championships.
Trump rips into boxer Imane Khelif about controversial Olympics win against Angela Carini
The protests quickly turned violent after one person was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, Clovis police Sgt. Chris Hutchison told the Chronicle.
He said the person - understood to be an LGBTQ activist - allegedly used a
Pride
flag to smash a car window, leaving a person injured.
During the heats,
Advertisement
The video, which has now gone viral on
TikTok
, shows the parents hounding Hernandez's mother for allowing the teen to compete.
One of the parents can be heard yelling at the mother: "What a coward of a woman you are allowing that."
Hernandez's story previously made headlines after another teenage girl, who the athlete beat to first place in a separate contest, waited for Hernandez to descend from the podium before moving to pose in the top spot.
In the TikTok, the parent can also be heard shouting: "Your mental illness is on your son, coward."
Advertisement
9
Transgender athlete AB Hernandez of Jurupa Valley leaves the track during the CIF State Track and Field Championships
Credit: Getty
9
Hernandez competes in the high jump
Credit: AP
9
A banner reading 'no boys in girls' sports!' is flown above Veterans' Memorial Stadium during the California high school track-and-field championships
Credit: AP
More than half of the US states have implemented bans on trans youth athletes participating since 2020.
Advertisement
But
California state
law
allows the participation of trans women and girls in women's sports.
Trump posted on Truth Social: "Please be hereby advised that large scale Federal Funding will be held back, maybe permanently, if the Executive Order on this subject matter is not adhered to."
His message refers to an Executive Order from February titled "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports".
In an interview with Capital & Main, Hernandez, from Jurupa Valley, California, said: "There's nothing I can do about people's actions, just focus on my own."
Advertisement
The trans pupil faced heckling and protesters in the crowd at a track meet earlier this month and was accompanied by campus security and Sheriff's Department deputies, CNN has reported.
9
AB Hernandez, second left, leaves the stadium after competing in the triple jump at the California high school track-and-field championships
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RTÉ News
10 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Two into one won't go but Liam O'Brien eyeing 2026 Winter Olympics spot
Australia may be one of the world's sporting strongholds but, similarly to Ireland, it wouldn't fall under the category of winter powerhouse (although their 19 medals are not to be sniffed at!). And yet next February, a Sydney-born short track speed skater is hoping to represent Team Ireland at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina - and if he were to qualify, he wouldn't be the first member of his family to compete at a Winter Games. The athlete in question is Liam O'Brien, whose connections to this island flow through both sides of his family, with his mother hailing from Kingscourt, Co. Cavan before she relocated Down Under in her 20s on a working holiday visa and met his father whose roots are in Meath and Leitrim respectively. As a child growing up in sports-mad and outdoorsy Australia, a young O'Brien dabbled with playing GAA in the Michael Cusacks club in Sydney. But in those days it was soccer and especially cricket that took precedence. "I played a lot of cricket and my pop wanted to get me into hurling but just didn't happen," the 26-year-old says at the Sport Ireland Campus during a recent visit as the road towards next year's Olympics ramps up. A love for cricket makes perfect sense from an Aussie perspective but how in the world did skating slip into his bloodstream? That's where the influence of his sister Danielle, who is eight-and-a-half years his senior, comes into the picture. "She went to a birthday party at an ice rink and just loved skating and kept hassling mum wanting to go back," O'Brien explains. "She went into ice dance and when I was born, I was just born into an ice rink, so I started skating at the age of three - figure skating - and then slowly moved into speed skating." Ice dance wasn't a mere hobby for Danielle and in 2014, she represented Australia at that year's Winter Olympics in Sochi. The entire family travelled to southern Russia to support her and the experience opened doors in her younger brother's imagination. "After watching her compete at the Olympics, it really drove me to want to become an Olympic athlete as well," he explains. "It was only after that that I'd seen really the goal and that target there in short track speed skating and really went for it then. That's when I gave up cricket and soccer as well." Unlike his sister, O'Brien is representing Ireland and that came following a chance meeting between his father and Ice Skating Association of Ireland chief executive Karen O'Sullivan in 2012. "We've kept contact ever since and when the opportunity came up to switch across to Ireland, I took that chance and Danielle and Mum and Dad were all very supportive and well, they loved it." Turbo-charging his pursuit of getting to the highest level in short track speed skating also meant moving away from Australia, with the aim of trying to qualify for Beijing 2022. Which is how he ended up relocating to Seongnam, South Korea in 2019 and enrolling at Dankook University. The country has produced the most Olympic gold medalists in short track ahead of China and Canada, making it a natural hub for anyone wanting to hone their craft. But his time there coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic and the restrictions that came with it, although apart from the difficulty of obtaining masks, he enjoyed the experience and the tougher challenge was learning Korean. "When Covid hit, there were no visas and so my only way to secure a visa was through study and I decided to learn Korean," O'Brien recalls. "That course was taught purely in Korean, and I hadn't actually learned the language up until that stage and I was given 24 hours before I had to do my first exam. I knew how to sound things out, but I didn't know how to write them, so I spent 24 hours learning the alphabet and how to put them all together because it's different symbols where it forms one character. So that was an interesting afternoon." O'Brien quickly became fluent, however the dream of representing Ireland in Beijing would be dashed when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament nine weeks before the qualifiers and although he got back on the ice far quicker than anticipated he would miss the Olympics by the narrowest of margins. "That was a big setback there," he admits. "I tried to keep myself entertained and not think about it at first. I was given 12 weeks of no sport whatsoever, no walking, nothing. "However, I was back on the ice within four weeks. And that was after being in a brace with my knee and not able to walk. And I was unlucky. I missed out by one spot in the end. So there were 36 qualified for the 1500m and we placed 37th." Fast forward to the present and O'Brien is still dreaming of a Games and to further that goal he has followed his Korean coach across to the Chinese city of Tianjin, just outside Beijing, in the last few weeks. "Bit of a move," he jokes. "The coach there is a Korean coach, Kwang-Soo Lee," he adds, "He's coached many junior athletes up into elite athletes there and into the national team. So I followed him across and I was with him before the Beijing Olympics as well. And actually, before I hurt my knee there he had just gone off to China that time." While O'Brien feels he is tracking well towards qualification for Milano-Cortina, two into one doesn't go. That's because Ireland will only have one quota spot in short track speed skating at the Games and Canadian-born Sean McAnuff, who was also in attendance at the Sport Ireland Campus late last month, is also vying for that single spot. "The first time I met Sean was probably when I was actually representing Australia," says O'Brien. "He was there at the 2018 Winter Olympics, the qualifications, and I was representing Australia at that time and we met there and since then now skating together for Ireland. "Sean is based out of Hungary and unfortunately, we don't get to train together, but it's hard as well when you don't have a relay team, you don't have that same, I guess, companionship." And even though they do not favour the same distances - O'Brien is more into the 1500m whereas McAnuff leans more towards the 500m and 1500m - it will still come down to one spot for Ireland if either meet the qualification criteria. "We're both different distances. He likes the shorter distances, where I prefer the longer distances, which makes it hard, where if we both qualify in our respective distance, there's still only the one spot, so it makes it hard in that sense however." The final qualification staging points will come in October and November but given how intrepid O'Brien has been in his short track pursuit to date, no one will be counting him out of being at the start line in Italy next February.
Irish Daily Mirror
14 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Gay GAA star admits nerves at football return after 'coming out' on podcast
Gay football star Kevin Penrose has opened up about his nerves returning to the sport after launching his podcast. The Tyrone player admitted he felt like he had to 'come out' all over again when he did his GAA Social podcast earlier this year. Kevin had told his family, friends and team-mates in 2022. He said of going back to playing: 'I remember the first match back… I thought, OK, the majority of these lads have most likely listened to this podcast in the past couple of weeks and I know they know. 'So I felt nervous walking across the pitch and in the changing rooms, you get that bit of paranoia. 'But everything was grand. You meet different lads at the changing room doors, they'd shake your hand and say well done. 'It brings you back, you just don't know what to expect.' Since launching his own podcast, the GAA Social, the travel influencer, 31, said it has helped many people feel comfortable with their sexuality. He added: 'Even to this day... like the podcast was how many months ago. 'I came out three years ago, but the podcast felt like I was coming out again but to a much larger audience and really honing in on that GAA demographic, which is teenagers to 60 plus year olds. 'People even come up to me in person and shake my hand…it's hard to know what to say to them in those moments because every journey is different but I'm glad they're finding some sort of comfort in it that they can see there is so much goodness and joy on the other side. 'I was guilty of it myself. I keep thinking that everything would go wrong in my life and you never stop to think that everything could go right so I'm glad that people have taken something from it.' But he said he found it hard reading the negative comments about his sexuality. He added: 'It was more like on Facebook. The comments were completely different to what I'd see on Instagram. 'Again, Facebook is a different demographic and they're older. 'I think people were just saying again, 'Why is this guy making a song and dance about coming out?' Pride month for example, like asking 'why do we need Pride month?' You're sort of answering your own question with your ignorance because this is exactly why we need it. 'I've been very lucky I haven't experienced anything negative. 'The likes of people on Facebook probably didn't even listen to the podcast, they just see the headline.' Kevin was speaking at the launch of SuperValu's new limited-edition Pride themed Bag for Life. Available this month in SuperValu stores across the country, the bold and bright rainbow tote is set to be the must-have bag of the summer and is available to purchase for €3. Profits will go to Belong To – LGBTQ+ Youth Ireland, the national LGBTQ+ youth organisation. Kevin said: 'I am delighted to team up with SuperValu for this important campaign supporting the incredible work of Belong To. As someone who has been through the journey of coming out within the GAA community, I'm incredibly passionate about allyship, and inclusion both on and off the pitch. 'By buying one of these bags and 'Carrying it with Pride', you are sending a powerful message that no matter who you are, you belong. 'I hope a campaign like this not only gives people the courage to be themselves but also reminds everyone to stand up and be proud allies for the LGBTQ+ community.'
The 42
21 hours ago
- The 42
Irish men's 4x100m relay team break longstanding national record
THE NATIONAL RECORD for the men's 4x100m relay has been broken. Michael Farrelly, Bori Akinola, Marcus Lawlor and Israel Olatunde set the new record of 38.92 seconds at the World Continental Tour Meet in Switzerland to take second. Advertisement Their brilliant performance eclipsed a record that has stood for 25 years. John McAdorey, Gary Ryan, Tom Comyns and Paul Brizzel ran a time of 39.26 at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Elsewhere, Sarah Lavin finished in second place in the final of the women's 100m hurdles at the 2025 Motonet GP Kuortanein on the World Continental Tour in Finland. Lavin clocked a time of 12.99 to come in behind Nooralotta Neziri of Finland who crossed the line in 12.85.
