A transgender girl who is a male teen won a recent California-Nevada high school state championship in skiing, prompting backlash from a parent of one the girls he competed against.
The high school sophomore, who goes by June Watterson and she/her pronouns, took first place in the High School State Champions women’s slalom race at the California-Nevada Interscholastic Ski & Snowboard Federation state finals for ski athletes, according to the Daily Mail.
A father of one of the competing girls spoke to the British outlet on the condition of anonymity, out of fear of relentless backlash. “Hormones and drugs are just introducing drugs into sport. It’s not fair on the girls. I’m all about being inclusive and accepting people, but they have men racing in women’s sports,’ the father said.
“It’s pretty clear to me or anyone with a brain that if you are going through or have gone through male puberty then you should only race against people who have gone through or are going through male puberty,” the parent added.
Watterson won the women’s race on March 6, 2023, beating the second place finisher by 17 seconds. The event took place at Northstar California near Lake Tahoe, with about 200 athletes representing approximately 50 schools in the competition.
Watterson has previously spoken about Watterson’s sex change on social media, remarking on how Watterson was on estrogen while still competing with men previously.
“There were a lot of factors this season that made it not the season I was hoping for, including being 6 months on estrogen in the men’s field, but I’m still happy with how I did the whole season,” the post read.
“I’m looking forward to next year and hopefully competing in women’s varsity! The work isn’t done though, and I still have the whole summer season and cyclocross until then! See you out there,” the teenager explained.
The father of Watterson’s competitor said that he asked his daughter how she felt, and she responded that “she was supportive, and her team had ‘come to terms’ with it.”
“These kids, they are kids [and] live in the world adults have created. I don’t blame the winning athlete. This is a failure at the administrative level and higher,” the parent continued. “I’ll point out the obvious: You ruin women’s sports by allowing males to compete in women’s sports.”
The Independent Council on Women’s Sports pointed out that this was the second male to win a women’s skiing competition in March 2023, stating that “trans-identifying male skier, Wren Pyle won a 2nd consecutive women’s national title in the U23 Sprint Skimo event last weekend in Utah at [the USA Skimo] National Championships.”
“Pyle also won in the U23 vertical event & in the individual rec women’s category,” ICONS stated.
ICONS also pointed out that Pyle “hopes to make the women’s Olympic team in Ski Mountaineering’s Olympic debut in Milano Cortina 2026.”
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