Middle school female athletes reportedly refuse to compete against biological male at track meet, protest in shot put ring

A handful of middle school female athletes reportedly refused to compete against a biological male at a West Virginia track and field championship Thursday — and cellphone video showed them staging a protest in the shot put ring.

What are the details?

The event was the 2024 Harrison County Middle School Championships at Liberty High School, OutKick reported.

The outlet said seven schools took part: Bridgeport, Heritage Christian, Notre Dame, South Harrison, Lincoln, Mountaineer (Clarksburg), and Washington Irving.

Several female shot put participants from Lincoln were seen on cellphone video protesting the inclusion of a transgender athlete in the competition, OutKick said.

Specifically, the girls from Lincoln were seen one by one stepping into the shot put ring and then quickly stepping out of the ring without making attempts.

While the video in Gaines' post appears to show six separate protests by Lincoln in the shot put ring, AthleticNet indicates that five Lincoln girls posted "ND" (no distance) in the finals. Gaines also writes that five girls refused to participate.

While OutKick doesn't name the transgender athlete upon whom the reported protest focused, Gaines did so in her post, calling attention to Becky Pepper-Jackson, who has been in the news quite a bit lately.

Blaze News reported that the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled in a 2–1 decision that a West Virginia law requiring every student athlete to participate in accordance with their biological sex violates the Title IX rights of Pepper-Jackson.

Pepper-Jackson — a biological male — has been living as a female and taking puberty blockers for years.

How did Pepper-Jackson fare at the meet?

According to AthleticNet, Pepper-Jackson of Bridgeport won the shot put final with a toss of 32 feet, 9 inches, easily besting the second-place finisher by more than three feet.

AtheticNet added that Pepper-Jackson placed second in the discus finals, while Ava McGill of Lincoln won it. McGill was not among the Lincoln girls who posted "ND" results in the shot put finals, according to stats. What's more, AthleticNet indicates that only one of the Lincoln girls who posted a "ND" result in the shot put finals repeated that for the discus finals — and one of the Lincoln girls who took part in the shot put protest posted a result in the discus finals, placing seventh.

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