A California high school girl’s track star, who went viral last year for stepping up to the first-place podium after losing her spot to a transgender-identifying male athlete, said she is considering another act of defiance this weekend as she faces the same opponent again.
Crean Lutheran High School girls’ track and field star Reese Hogan is set to go against Jurupa Valley High School’s AB Hernandez — a biological male — in long jump, high jump, and triple jump, the same events she has participated in for her last three track and field postseasons, OutKick reported. Hogan also came in second to Hernandez last Saturday in the sectional preliminary round.
One year ago, Hernandez snagged the top spot for the triple jump. In a spur-of-the-moment act, Hogan stepped up from second place to the top spot on the podium, in a clip that ended up going viral.
“If the opportunity presents itself, we’ll see, yeah,” Hogan told Fox News Digital when asked if she would make a similar display this year.
Hogan said the protest last year “wasn’t planned” and was “just kind of something that I did in the moment that felt right.”
“I was standing on the second-place podium, and I just felt called to the first-place podium. I didn’t want to disrespect anyone, so I made sure that the athlete stepped off the podium first before I stepped on,” she said.
The moment occurred just days after Fox News Digital interviewed her — an interview which reportedly prompted a response from the Department of Education and fueled the feud between President Donald Trump and far-left California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
When Hogan stepped up to the first-place spot on the podium, the crowd loudly cheered for her in a show of support.
“I felt validated in how I felt. I felt people saw me. I felt there was more support than I thought there would be, and more people who were backing our side of protecting girls’ sports,” Hogan said.
The moment caught the attention of many women’s sports advocates, including Riley Gaines. Hogan said she received mean comments as well, but she said she does not let those get her down.
“When you do stuff like that, you have to expect that there’s going to be people who don’t agree with you. But I mean, that’s how life works. The mean comments are mean comments; I don’t let it affect me,” she said.
Hogan and her teammate, Olivia Viola, have become recognized voices in the Save Girls’ Sports movement for this season’s California track and field tournament, according to the report. The pair spoke at a rally last weekend before going up against Hernandez, and did a live television interview on Fox News on Tuesday.
This weekend is their last chance in their high school careers to win a sectional and state title — an aspiration that could be thwarted by California’s laws allowing males to play in women’s sports.
Hogan said she refused every college offer she received from schools in California and has opted to go to Texas Christian University instead.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.