{"id":28543,"date":"2025-06-03T15:10:30","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T15:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=28543"},"modified":"2025-06-03T15:10:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T15:10:30","slug":"trans-athlete-has-strong-message-for-critics-after-winning-track-and-field-championship-for-second-year-straight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=28543","title":{"rendered":"Trans athlete has strong message for critics after winning track and field championship for second year straight"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Warning: This article contains discussion of discrimination against the trans community which some readers may find distressing.<\/em><\/p>\n

A 17-year-old trans athlete has issued a powerful message to her critics after she was booed for winning a track and field championship for the second consecutive year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ver\u00f3nica Garcia won the class 2A 400-meter sprint at Mount Tahoma High\u00a0School<\/a>, in Tacoma, Washington – roughly a 45-minute drive from Seattle – on Saturday (May 31).<\/p>\n

While the East Valley High School student was stretching off prior to the race starting, a man who was wearing a shirt that read ‘Save women’s sports’ on it with the\u00a0American<\/a>\u00a0flag printed on it, could be heard antagonising the teen.<\/p>\n

According\u00a0to<\/a>\u00a0the Seattle Times, the man in question was sat close to the starting blocks and could be heard shouting ‘girls race’ and ‘let’s go girls’ over and over.<\/p>\n

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\"Ver\u00f3nica\"Ver\u00f3nica<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ver\u00f3nica Garcia beat second-placed Lauren Matthew by almost a full second (X\/Riley_Gaines_)<\/cite><\/div>\n

Ver\u00f3nica beat her nearest competitor by just a full second, West Valley junior Lauren Matthew – who was seen holding a sign after the race that read: “Washington<\/a>\u00a0State Track and Field Real Girls 2A 400m Champion.”<\/p>\n

However, Ver\u00f3nica, whose time was 55.70 seconds, half a second faster than her\u00a0score<\/a>\u00a0last year, issued a strong message to her critics while speaking with the Seattle Times.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ll be honest, I kind of expect it,” she explained.<\/p>\n

“But it maybe didn\u2019t have their intended effect. It made me angry, but not angry as in, I wanted to give up, but angry as in, I\u2019m going to push.<\/p>\n

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\"Ver\u00f3nica\"Ver\u00f3nica<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ver\u00f3nica Garcia sent a defiant message out to her critics after retaining the class 2A 400-meter sprint (RunnerSpace)<\/cite><\/div>\n

“I\u2019m going to put this in the most PG-13 way, I\u2019m just going to say it\u2019s a damn shame they don\u2019t have anything else better to do. I hope they get a life. But oh well. It just shows who they are as people.”<\/p>\n

She continued: “I\u2019m really proud of myself. I did what I came to do, and that\u2019s good enough for me.<\/p>\n

“One of the things that\u00a0Martin Luther King<\/a>\u00a0always pointed out is that you have to do what\u2019s right. Even if there comes risk, you still have to do what\u2019s right.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Lauren, who took home second place,\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0Spokesman-Review after the race: “I shouldn\u2019t have to push myself to the point of where I\u2019m about to, like, die in order to win.<\/p>\n

“I know I\u2019m gonna push myself to keep going, but I don\u2019t want a man pushing me to have to go”, she added, misgendering Garcia.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>LGBT national hotline<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0at 888-843-4564, available Monday to Friday 4pm-12am ET and 12pm-5pm ET on Saturdays.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Warning: This article contains discussion of discrimination against the trans community which some readers may find distressing. A 17-year-old trans athlete has issued a powerful message to her … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28545,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28543\/revisions\/28545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}