Archived: For young transgender runner, racing wasn’t the hardest thing

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itemprop="datePublished" datetime="2025-12-28T12:00:53.119Z">12/28/2025</time><contexter-summary class="p-summary entry-summary" itemprop="abstract" slot="summary"><p>Verónica García overcame poverty to become a high school track champion — twice. It made her famous for all the wrong reasons.</p></contexter-summary><contexter-keywordset itemprop="keywords" slot="keywords"><span rel="category tag" class="p-category" itemprop="keywords">National</span></contexter-keywordset><a is="contexter-link" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/12/28/transgender-female-athlete-competition-trump/" class="read-link main-link" itemprop="sameAs" slot="read-link">Read</a><a href="https://context.center/timegate/https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/12/28/transgender-female-athlete-competition-trump/" is="contexter-link" target="_blank" class="read-link archive-link" itemprop="archivedAt" slot="archive-link">Archived</a></contexter-box>

For young transgender runner, racing wasn’t the hardest thing

Casey Parks

12/28/2025

Verónica García overcame poverty to become a high school track champion — twice. It made her famous for all the wrong reasons.

National

Democracy Dies in Darkness

Verónica García overcame poverty to become a high school track champion — twice. It made her famous for all the wrong reasons.

Yesterday at 7:00 a.m. EST

Verónica García, a senior at East Valley High School and a track and field athlete, sits quietly before a run along the Spokane River in Washington state in February. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. — Verónica García woke up, as she always did, on the floor. Her head hurt. Her stomach cramped with hunger. It was the morning of her first race of the season, and she had longed the night before to carbo-load with Olive Garden breadsticks, but her family didn’t have money for that. Instead, the 17-year-old had cooked the only substitute she could find — a quarter-pack of spaghetti with no sauce.