NEWYou can now listen to Pakinomist articles!
Nothing was going to stop Alexa Anderson from stepping off the medal stand that evening on May 30th. Not when a biological male would be up there too.
Anderson had just finished third in the girls state high jump championship, marking her final Oregon high school track performance after four intense years of competition and training. But she wouldn’t see the medal for all the hard work for months, she claims.
After she and fellow high jump podium finisher Reese Eckhard, who finished fourth, stepped off the podium to protest a trans athlete who finished fifth, Anderson claimed she was forced out of the championship picture and never given her third-place medal.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON Pakinomist
The allegations are at the center of an ongoing lawsuit, which has already passed a legal hurdle after a federal judge denied a motion by the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) to dismiss charges from the case.
“I asked after the medal ceremony was over, we went into a kind of tunnel that takes you back out to the audience, and I asked one of the officials, ‘Hey, are we going to get our medals?’ and she said they would be sent to our school. And then they were never sent to our school,” Anderson told Pakinomist Digital.
Months of death threats followed. Anderson claims many critics even called her school, Tigard High School in Tigard, Oregon, and lobbied for her expulsion just before she graduated.
She saw a childhood hero in Simone Biles’ attacks and “bodysham” Riley Gaines in defense of trans athletes in women’s sports – the very thing she was now being threatened for standing up to. She saw a budding idol in Charlie Kirk murdered while speaking about the trans community, all before she got her medal.
And she witnessed it all before she got her medal, allegedly.
She had to take OSAA to court, suing the alleged withholding of medals and First Amendment violations, before she finally got her hardware.
“I didn’t receive my medal until recently,” Anderson said, adding that the medals were sent directly to the law firm that represented her in the legal battle, the America First Policy Institute (AFPI).
The medals were then ceremoniously presented to her and Eckard at the Fox Nation Patriot Awards earlier in November, where the two received the Most Valuable Patriot award.
OREGON ATHLETES WIN ‘MOST VALUABLE PATRIOT’ AWARD AFTER REFUSING TO SHARE PODIUM WITH TRANS COMPETITOR
Reese Eckard and Alexa Anderson receive the Most Valuable Patriot Award from Will Cain and Martha MacCallum on stage during the 2025 Fox Nation Patriot Awards at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts in Greenvale, New York on November 6, 2025. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)
After all that waiting, Anderson is now choosing to leave the medal at her parents’ house in Oregon while she warms up for her freshman season at the University of South Alabama.
“It’s certainly frustrating that we didn’t get them at the moment… but it kind of is what it is at this point. There are more important things that we’re fighting for,” she said. “Obviously I wanted that medal, I worked super hard to get to where I was on the podium… but also part of me knew that was part of the sacrifice I made when I stepped off the podium and there would be consequences.”
The consequences began immediately, but grew harsher over time.
It already had consequences right after she stepped down from the podium on 30 May.
“There were people who just kind of attacked us and said, ‘You guys are thugs, you’re horrible people’.”
Anderson previously told Pakinomist Digital in June that most of the online reception she received following the incident was positive. But that changed as her story spread in the following weeks and months.
She began to learn how life really was at the center of the culture war to “Save Women’s Sports.”
“There were people calling my school asking me to be expelled because they weren’t allowed to sit the exam,” Anderson alleged. “There were people messaging me personally, just saying horrible things, even death threats.
“‘I hope you die,'” one message read, she claims, with another reading, “‘Your parents must be embarrassed about you…’
“It sure hurt.”
But it never hurt enough to make her stand down.
Anderson said none of the harassment was enough for her to fear taking things further with a lawsuit.
“Part of me expected this and knew that’s just what happens when you stand up for what you believe in,” she said.
OREGON GIRLS PROTESTING TRANS ATHLETE ON TRACK AND FIELD MEDAL PODIUM SCORE LEGAL VICTORY IN COURT CASE
Oregon girls’ athletes Reese Eckard and Alexa Anderson are not standing on a medal podium next to a trans opponent. (Courtesy of America First Policy Institute)
And now her and Eckard’s trial is progressing.
U.S. District Court Judge Youlee Yim You denied the OSAA’s motion to challenge a portion of the lawsuit that highlighted the types of political speech the league allows, including Black Lives Matter and pro-LGBTQ pride messages, which were a key point of the plaintiffs’ argument.
Anderson said she regularly saw other athletes throughout her four-year high school career protest at events without ever being punished.
“I’ve seen a lot of talk about support and rights for the LGBTQ community, the trans community, a lot of the Black Lives Matter movement … wearing shirts, flags, that kind of thing,” she said. “I think it’s really harmful to students to only allow them to express certain views that you agree with.”
Yet she never saw anyone else step down from a podium in protest. It’s her signature.
As Anderson and Eckard advance their lawsuit, they aim to bring First Amendment protections to all of the state’s students, regardless of their faith.
Her lawyer at AFPI, Leigh’Ann O’Neill, told Pakinomist Digital what it would take to settle the lawsuit.
“The OSAA must very affirmatively take a stand and demonstrate that they will respect all the views of their athletes and participants in their other recreational activities in Oregon,” O’Neill said. “When are we going to see Oregon step up and make it clear to their athletes that it’s okay for you to disagree with us?
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE Pakinomist APP
“Nominal damages have been requested as part of the lawsuit, which is kind of a technicality, and it’s really about ensuring the protection of their freedom of expression.”
Pakinomist Digital has reached out to OSAA and Tigard High School for comment.
