California track and field championship to be overshadowed by trans drama for second year in a row

The debate over transgender athletes in women's sports takes center stage after a California track and field event sparks outrage, leading to shared podiums and calls for fairness.

California's high school track and field state finals kick off in Clovis on Friday, with an expected protest presence for the second straight year.

The California Interscholastic Federation's (CIF) state finals will include a prominent transgender athlete competing in the high jump, long jump and triple jump. Last year, the athlete's presence prompted competing protests, a plane with a flyover banner, ejections from the venue, and a person with a trans flag was even arrested after allegedly assaulting an opposing protester.

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Transgender athlete supporters hold signs outside a Riverside Unified School District meeting in Riverside, Calif., on Dec. 19, 2024. California girls' track and field athletes protest trans inclusion in girls' sports at a postseason meet at Yorba Linda High School on May 10, 2025. (Sophia Lorey/Getty Images)

Clovis Mayor Pro Tem Dianne Pearce placed the blame for the pending protests on the CIF and Gov. Gavin Newsom.

"Because the CIF, Governor Newsom, and the state legislature continue to fail and ignore our female athletes there is a distraction that hangs over this weekend’s events for a second year in a row. The abject failure of the adults in control of these policies is outrageous and ridiculous. A survey done in April 2025 by the Public Policy Institute of California showed that over 70% of California’s public school parents support only biological girls competing in girls’ sports divisions," Pearce told Fox News Digital.

Pearce reflected on the chaos that occurred