When 17-year-old transgender runner Verónica Garcia crossed the finish line first for the second year in a row, some people in the crowd started booing.
It was the girls’ 2A 400-meter dash at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma, Washington.
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But Verónica didn’t let the noise get to her. She spoke up and didn’t hold back.
A man at the race tried to stir things up
Right before the race started, Verónica was stretching when a guy nearby started yelling stuff.
He had on a shirt that said “Save women’s sports” with an American flag on it, and he clearly wasn’t there just to cheer.
His shouting caught everyone’s attention
That same man kept repeating stuff like “girls race” and “let’s go girls” while sitting close to the starting blocks.
It was pretty obvious who his comments were aimed at.
Verónica crossed the finish line with a solid lead
She ended up winning by a full second ahead of the runner-up, Lauren Matthew from West Valley.
After the race, Lauren held up a sign that said, “Washington State Track and Field Real Girls 2A 400m Champion.”
She ran even faster than last year
Verónica’s final time was 55.70 seconds, which was half a second quicker than what she ran the year before.
She also didn’t hold back when it came to addressing the noise around her win.
The crowd’s reaction pushed her to try even harder
“I’ll be honest, I kind of expect it,” she explained.
“But it maybe didn’t have their intended effect. It made me angry, but not angry as in, I wanted to give up, but angry as in, I’m going to push.”
“I’m going to put this in the most PG-13 way, I’m just going to say it’s a damn shame they don’t have anything else better to do. I hope they get a life. But oh well. It just shows who they are as people.”
She walked away feeling proud of herself
She continued: “I’m really proud of myself. I did what I came to do, and that’s good enough for me.”
“One of the things that Martin Luther King always pointed out is that you have to do what’s right. Even if there comes risk, you still have to do what’s right.”
The second-place runner had something to say too
After finishing right behind Verónica, Lauren shared her thoughts with Spokesman-Review.
“I shouldn’t have to push myself to the point of where I’m about to, like, die in order to win,” she said.
Lauren referred to Verónica as a man
“I know I’m gonna push myself to keep going, but I don’t want a man pushing me to have to go”, she added, referring to Verónica.
