California parent whose daughter lost to biological male in girls' track competition responds

EXCLUSIVE – A California parent of a female runner who lost to a biological male in Saturday's California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) race called it "unfair" in an interview with Fox News Digital.

Athena Ryan, a transgender female, finished in second place in the varsity girls 1,600-meter run finals on Saturday in the sectional Meet of Champions.

Ryan, of Sonoma Academy, finished behind Hanne Thomsen of Montgomery High School and ahead of Ellie Buckley of Campolindo High School. Ryan will advance to the CIF State Track & Field Championships next week.

"I wasn’t expecting that. I dropped like 17 seconds on my season’s best in the past two weeks," Ryan said after the win. "After last weekend, I didn’t think I could run low 5's again. I was just coming here trying to break 5 – just glad I finished it out."

One of the parents of the runners who lost to Ryan, whose name is being withheld due to fears of retaliation and bullying, blasted the competition for allowing a biological male to compete against the girls.

"I'm absolutely opposed to it. There's no way this should be allowed," the parent said. "Ryan was in like fifth place with 100 to go, and all of a sudden he... blew past the girls."

"How do you not understand that that's unfair?" the parent said.

"I 100% percent empathize with the need to belong and the desire to compete. [However,] you have to understand how hard these girls work to do this."

"You're cheating [the sport], like the narcissism of this whole thing," the parent said about CIF's policies.

The parent also said that the girls will not speak out about their disappointment of Ryan's inclusion in their sport because it could be considered "bullying" and affect their ability to compete at all.... (Read more)

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