High school male pushes females out of high jump honors

(The Daily Signal) – A male high school student took 10th place in the girls’ high jump in a recent national indoor track meet in Boston, continuing a streak of elbowing out female athletes from placing in the event.

Lizzy Cohen Bidwell, a Connecticut resident whose name at birth was Lucas, qualified for the national meet by taking first in the girls’ high jump in the regional competition.

Bidwell, a high school junior from West Hartford, Connecticut, competed as one of six female runners representing the state March 10 in the high jump at the New Balance Nationals Indoor meet. 

The male athlete placed third in the girls’ high jump and fifth in the girls’ long jump Feb. 17 at the CIAC State Open Indoor Track and Field Championships.

Connecticut continues to demonstrate a disregard for women’s achievement, May Mailman, director of the Independent Women’s Law Center, told The Daily Signal. Her organization defends equal opportunity, individual liberty, and what it calls the legal relevance of biological sex.

“Thanks to the state’s anti-female policies, young men continue to take records, roster spots, dignity, and hope away from women,” May said. “This level of discrimination has no place in our society, and every coach, administrative official, and parent who condones this through their action is participating in the degradation and unequal treatment of women.”

Each participating state in the March 2 regional championship, the New England High School Indoor Track & Field Championship, was allowed to submit the names of six competitors per event, according to the meet program. 

Bidwell was one of two transgender athletes to beat females in the girls’ high jump at the national meet.

Maelle Jacques, a biological male from New Hampshire, placed 14th in the event at last weekend’s national. Jacques qualified by winning the girls’ high jump Feb. 11 at the state’s Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 2 championship. 

“Another less than mediocre man atop a women’s podium,” former competitive swimmer and women’s sports advocate Riley Gaines wrote of Jacques on X, formerly Twitter, in a Feb. 14 post. “He must be so proud.”

Bidwell qualified for the New England regional indoor track championship by placing in the girls’ high jump and long jump in the Connecticut State Championship, pushing out a female athlete in both events. For unreported reasons, the athlete didn’t compete as scheduled in the girls’ long jump. 

Bidwell’s high jump of 5 feet, 9 inches at the regional made the biological male the highest-ranked “female” athlete of  2024 for indoor track at Connecticut high schools. Nationally, he ranks fifth-best among high school girls in the high jump. 

If Bidwell had competed in the boys’ high jump, however, the athlete wouldn’t have cleared the height of 6 feet, 1 inch needed to qualify.

Bidwell’s parents legally changed his name from Lucas to Lizzy between ages 9 and 10, Reduxx reported. 

Bidwell’s competition in the girls’ event at the regional took an award from a biological female. That March 2 win secured the athlete a first-place plaque as Special New England Champion. 

Across the nation, boys are taking the places of girls in sporting events designed for female athletes. 

At the end of September in Maine, for example, a biological male runner who identifies as a female, Soren Stark-Chessa, went from the middle of the pack in boys’ races to winning the award for Fastest Sophomore Girl at Maine’s largest high school cross-country race.