‘Real Champ!’: Defiant Female Track Star Poses on First-Place Podium After Finishing Second to Trans Athlete

A female track athlete in California who lost first place to a boy identifying as a girl has won the praise of many after she posed standing on the No. 1 podium in defiance of the rules allowing trans athletes to compete as women.

Reese Hogan, 16, placed second in the triple jump at the CIF Southern Section Finals on Saturday. When the time came for the photo ops on the winner’s podium, she dutifully stood on her number two spot. But when the first and third place winners stepped away after the photo ops, Hogan boldly took her place on the number one podium and declared herself the real female winner of the event, the New York Post reported.

The teenager’s bold move earned the praise of women’s sports advocate Riley Gaines, who took to X to congratulate Hogan for being the proper winner of the event.

“When the boy got off the podium, she assumed her rightful spot as champion. The crowd erupts with applause,” Gaines wrote.

“THIS is the way. Congrats to Reese Hogan, the REAL champ!!!”

Still, transgender athlete AB Hernandez of Jurupa Valley is marked as the triple jump winner. Hernandez also won the girls’ long jump on Saturday.

Even though Hogan beat all the other girls and achieved a personal best, she was topped by the transgender Hernandez by more than four feet.

Hogan is one of the many female athletes who have protested the restriction on men’s participation in women’s sports. Indeed, according to Fox News, she was seen wearing a “Protect Girls Spots” shirt earlier in the week.

Hogan also said that event officials seemed to threaten the girls over the shirts.

“It wasn’t said, but it was implied that if I didn’t take my shirt off then and there, then something could potentially happen to my spot, it wasn’t said, but it was implied,” Hogan told Fox News. “Throughout the day it was kind of getting a little bit more stricter… getting a little bit more hostile with their voices… they never said anything about getting disqualified, but it was kind of implied by the tone of their voice and the way that they said things.”

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