In a courageous act of protest that has sparked national attention, an Oregon high school athlete refused to stand on the podium beside a biological male who competed in the girls’ division—and the reaction from officials was as disgraceful as it was telling.
Tigard High School senior Alexa Anderson, a standout in girls’ track and field, chose to step off the awards podium during the Oregon State Athletic Association’s Girls High Jump medal ceremony on May 31 at Hayward Field. Her silent protest came in response to the inclusion of Liaa Rose, a male athlete identifying as female, who placed fifth in the competition—just behind Anderson and fellow competitor Reese Eckard of Sherwood High.
Rather than allow their hard-earned accomplishments to be diminished by a system catering to gender ideology over fairness, both Anderson and Eckard turned their backs and removed themselves from the podium during the awards.
Officials, instead of respecting their peaceful stand, ordered the girls to move out of the camera frame, pushing them even farther from the stage. “They asked us to move away from the medal stand, so when they took the photos, we weren’t even in it at all,” Anderson revealed in an interview with Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle. The implication was clear: disagree with the woke orthodoxy, and you’ll be erased.
Anderson’s fourth-place finish (5 feet 4.25 inches) and Eckard’s third-place (5 feet 3 inches) both outperformed Rose’s 5 feet 1.65 inches—yet their refusal to pretend this was a fair competition was treated as the problem.
“It’s unfair,” Anderson said bluntly. “Biological males and biological females compete at such different levels that letting a biological male into our competition is taking up space and opportunities from all these hardworking women. The girl in ninth who should have come in eighth had that podium spot taken away from her.”
Anderson has long supported female athletes speaking out on this issue but decided this was the moment to make her stand public. “I have privately supported all the girls that have done \[this] with positive messages… letting them know I’m behind them in any way,” she said.
And as this incident unfolded in Oregon, across the border in Washington, another biological male dominated girls’ athletics. Verónica Garcia, a transgender athlete, claimed victory in the Class 2A 400-meter dash, beating all the biological females by over a second.
Garcia’s response to critics was nothing short of dismissive and arrogant: “It’s a damn shame they don’t have anything else better to do… I hope they get a life.” So much for grace in victory.
This isn’t “inclusion.” This is the erasure of women’s sports.
Anderson’s quiet, respectful protest is what bravery looks like in 2025. While corporate media, athletic associations, and woke officials continue to cave to radical gender ideology, it’s young women like Alexa Anderson who are standing for truth, fairness, and biology.
She’s not just jumping over a bar—she’s raising one for women’s sports everywhere.
