TACOMA, Wash. – A transgender athlete from Spokane Valley’s East Valley High School has won the state championship in the girls’ 2A 400-meter dash.
Verónica Garcia, a senior at East Valley, took first place in the race, making her a back-to-back state champion. Garcia made history last year as the first transgender track athlete to win a Washington state title in the same event. .
Garcia crossed the finish line with a time of 55.70 seconds, narrowly improving her performance from last year. She was followed by Lauren Matthew, a junior from West Valley, who finished second with a time of 56.75 seconds.
handbook that would restrict participation in girls’ middle and high school sports to students assigned female at birth. Another proposed rule change would have created a new “open division” in which all students could compete, regardless of gender identity.
However, the WIAA announced in April that the votes on the amendments would be advisory only, stating that the proposed changes would violate state law if enacted. .
In February, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports.” More recently, the U.S. Department of Education announced an investigation into the Tumwater School District’s decision to allow a transgender athlete to participate in a girls’ basketball game.
