Sophie Cunningham has applauded the high school cross country runners who found themselves at the center of a storm over transgender athletes at a meet in Washington.
Earlier this week, a dozen teenage girls from Camas High School in Camas, Washington, refused to race after learning that they were facing a biological male athlete.
Logan Mihailoff, a junior at Camas High, switched from the boys’ competition to the girls’ midseason, competing in the male field as recently as September 5.
The switch sparked outrage among some parents and students, and when the horn blared on Tuesday, almost half of the field walked off the course in protest.
Footage of the incident quickly went viral, with XX-XY Athletics among those to share it on social media.
Under an Instagram post by the apparel brand – which claims to ‘stand up for women’s sports’ – WNBA superstar Cunningham wrote: ‘Good work girls.’
Sophie Cunningham has applauded the high school cross country runners who refused to race after learning that they were facing a biological male athlete
A dozen female high school cross country runners walked off during Tuesday’s race
The girls from Camas High School in Washington protested competing against a trans athlete
Earlier this year, Cunningham sparked protests and a bitter WNBA culture war after claiming she wants to ‘protect young girls… who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.’
At the cross country meet in Washington, several parents carried signs calling to keep men out of women’s sports.
The protest comes less than a month before Washington voters are set to head to the polls to cast their ballot on an initiative to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports.
The state will vote on Initiative 638 on November 3, which, if passed, would ban biological males from competing in girls’ K-12 sports.
Despite being an overwhelmingly liberal state, there is optimism among activists that the initiative could pass.
Tentative recent local polling reportedly shows that Washington voters will cast their ballots in favor of passing the ban.
Polling conducted by Let’s Go Washington, a conservative-backed political action committee that advocated for the proposed ban, earlier this month showed 56 percent of the vote going in favor of the ban in November, according to KUOW.
Nationally, meanwhile, 66 percent of Americans are said to support policies that force trans athletes to play on sports teams that ‘match their sex at birth,’ according to polling that the Pew Research Center published last year.
Logan Mihailoff, a junior, switched from the boys’ competition to the girls’ midseason
The girls walked past the starting line with their arms linked and into the nearby tree line
Cunningham has said she wants to ‘protect young girls… who shouldn’t have to go against biological men’
27 states have already passed policies that separate biological males from competing in women’s sports in K-12. However, all of those policies were passed by state legislature rather than the popular vote.
Therefore, should Washington pass the initiative in November, it would become the first state to enact the policy through voter approval, according to Fox News.
Furthermore, it would also become the first state that Donald Trump lost to Kamala Harris in the 2024 election to adopt such a policy.
The President signed an executive order in February 2025 aimed at keeping trans athletes out of girls’ and women’s sports. But Washington rejected the order with the state’s Superintendent Chris Reykdal immediately speaking out against the policy.
Reykdal said in a statement that the order tried to force schools to ‘discriminate against trans female athletes’ in exchange for federal funds, and that it sought to ‘restrict transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports with their peers.’
He called the order unlawful, saying it contradicted the Washington Law Against Discrimination and state school rules. He added: ‘Our state law prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity, and we will not back down from that.’
