Three-time Olympic women’s gold medalists Nancy Hogshead and Kaillie Humphries have spoken out on the growing girls’ track and field controversy in California, as a trans athlete is looking to defend a pair of state titles.
Hogshead spoke out against California Gov. Gavin Newsom for his state’s policies that continue to allow trans athletes in women’s sports. The medalist responded to a statement from a source within Newsom’s office on the issue that stated, “The Governor has said discussions on this issue should be guided by fairness, dignity, and respect.”
“Governor Newsom seems to exclude girls from his own standard of ‘fairness, dignity and respect.’ It is impossible to include a male — however they identify — into girl’s sports and have a fair competition, respecting and dignifying the unique biology of females. Females aren’t weakened males; males and females are built from different molds, so different that it justifies formal, government-sanctioned sex segregation,” Hogshead told Fox News Digital.
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Save Girls Sports activists hold a rally outside a CIF council meeting in Long Beach, Calif., on Feb. 6, 2026. (Courtesy of Sophia Lorey)
Hogshead, who represented the U.S. at the 1984 Summer Olympics, where she won three gold medals and one silver medal in swimming, has become a prominent activist in the fight to save women’s sports, despite being a lifelong Democrat. Hogshead is also a civil rights lawyer.
“The government never segregates racially and religiously, but we do segregate by sex because of biology, material reality. Girls and women rely on that formal sex segregation to have the possibility of equality in sport. Governor Newsom needs to include the girls competing in track in his own analysis. As a law professor, this is a big fail,” she continued.
Humprhies, who is a tax-paying California citizen and rising Trump ally in the effort to protect women’s sports, criticized Newsom as well. Humphries has won three Olympic gold medals in bobsled for the U.S. and Canada and six medals in total, making her the most decorated women’s bobsledder in history.
“There is nothing fair about allowing boys to take opportunities from girls in sports. It’s just the left’s thinly veiled misogyny. Governor Newsom should be focusing on California hosting the Olympics which actually knows the difference between men and women and quit pushing his woke agenda which is out of the mainstream of the American public,” Humphries told Fox News Digital.
The source within Newsom’s office responded to news that a “Save Girls Sports” protest will be held on Saturday at the site of a track and field playoff meet.
“The Governor has said discussions on this issue should be guided by fairness, dignity, and respect. He rejects the right wing’s cynical attempt to weaponize this debate as an excuse to vilify individual kids. The Governor’s position is simple: stand with all kids and stand up to bullies,” a source within the governor’s office told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
“California is one of 22 states that have laws requiring students be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school sports consistent with their gender identity. California passed this law in 2013 (AB 1266) and it was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown.”
President Donald Trump’s White House has also called out Newsom ahead of the start of the state’s girls’ track and field postseason.
“Gavin Newscum is a truly sick individual who has no regard for fairness, dignity, and respect. If he did, he wouldn’t allow men to compete in women’s sports, limiting women’s opportunities and jeopardizing their health and safety. President Trump fights for commonsense policies that uplift every athlete and restore fairness on the field,” White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster told Fox News Digital Thursday.
And Hogshead is not the only U.S. Olympian speaking out on the situation ahead of the event.
Former Team USA cyclist Giddeon Massie addressed the controversy in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“God in His perfect will and sovereignty created men and women to be different and we can be thankful for that. Men have a clear biological advantage in Track & Field which focuses on disciplines that test at the most basic levels, strength, speed, and endurance,” Massie said.
“It is a chief of all lies, intellectually dishonest, and evil to suggest that women in their chosen sport be forced to compete against men that could not be competitive in their biologically correct category be labeled fair.”
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The Saturday protest, organized by former NCAA women’s soccer player Sophia Lorey, will be held at the site of the California Interscholastic Southern Section, Division 3, preliminaries in Yorba Linda, as a trans athlete for Jurupa Valley High School is set to compete after winning two finals last season.
Last year’s California girls’ track and field state finals erupted into a chaotic and nationally publicized spectacle that included competing protests, the arrest of a pro-trans activist for allegedly attacking a conservative activist, a plane flyover with a “Save Girls Sports” banner and even Lorey’s ejection from the venue.
California girls track and field athletes protest transgender inclusion in girls sports at a postseason meet at Yorba Linda High School on May 10, 2025.
After Jurupa’s trans athlete won first place in triple jump and high jump, and second place in long jump, Trump’s Department of Justice launched a lawsuit against California state agencies for alleged Title IX violations last July.
Trump’s administration cracked down with a more targeted investigation of JUSD in January. The U.S. Department of Education announced JUSD specifically would be investigated for potential Title IX violations, along with 17 other institutions.
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