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Nothing was going to stop Alexa Anderson from stepping off the podium that night, May 30. Not when a biological male would be there too.
Anderson had just finished in third place in the girls’ high jump state championship, marking her final high school track performance in Oregon after four intense years of competition and training. But she won’t see the reward for all this hard work for several months, she says.
After she and fellow athlete Reese Eckhard, who finished fourth, withdrew from the podium to protest a trans athlete who finished fifth, Anderson alleged that she was forced out of the championship picture and never received her third-place medal.
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The allegations are at the center of an ongoing lawsuit, which has already cleared a legal hurdle after a federal judge denied a motion by the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) to strike the charges from the lawsuit.
“I asked after the medal ceremony was over, we went into a sort of tunnel that takes you back to the audience, and I asked one of the officials, ‘Hey, are we going to get our medals?’ and she said they would be shipped to our school. And then they were never shipped to our school,” Anderson told PK Press Club Digital.
Months of death threats followed. Anderson claims many critics even called his school, Tigard High School in Tigard, Oregon, to lobby for his expulsion, just before he graduated.
She witnessed a childhood hero in attacking Simone Biles and “body shaming” Riley Gaines in defense of trans athletes in women’s sports — which is exactly what she was now under threat for opposing. She watched aspiring idol Charlie Kirk get murdered while speaking about the trans community, before receiving her medal.
And she witnessed all of this before receiving her medal, it seems.
She had to take the OSAA to court, suing for alleged medal denial and First Amendment violations, before finally getting her hardware.
“I only received my medal recently,” Anderson said, adding that the medals were sent directly to the law firm representing her in the legal battle, the America First Policy Institute (AFPI).
Then, ceremonially, the medals were presented to him and Eckard at the Fox Nation Patriot Awards earlier in November, when both received the Most Valuable Patriot award.
OREGON ATHLETES WIN “MOST VALUABLE PATRIOTE” AWARD AFTER REFUSING TO SHARE PODIUM WITH TRANS CONTESTANT
Reese Eckard and Alexa Anderson accept 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 the waiting, Anderson is now choosing to leave the medal with her parents in Oregon while she prepares for her freshman season at the University of South Alabama.
“It’s really frustrating that we didn’t get them at the time…but that’s kind of what’s happening at this point. There are more important things we’re fighting for,” she said. “Of course I wanted that medal, I worked really hard to get to that place where I was on the podium… but also part of me knew that that was part of the sacrifice I was making when I came off that podium, and that there would be consequences.”
The consequences began immediately, but worsened over time.
There were consequences in the moments following his fall from the podium on May 30.
“There were people who were kind of attacking us and saying, ‘You’re bullies, you’re horrible people.'”
Anderson previously told PK Press Club Digital in June that most of the online reception she received after the incident was positive. But that changed as her story spread over the following weeks and months.
She began to learn what life was really like at the center of the culture war to “save women’s sports.”
“There were people calling my school asking that I be expelled and not allowed to walk at graduation,” Anderson said. “There were people sending me personal messages, saying horrible things, even death threats.
“‘I hope you die,'” one message read, she claims, with another reading, “‘Your parents are definitely embarrassed of you…’
“It really hurts.”
But it was never painful enough for her to resign.
Anderson said no amount of harassment was enough for her to fear taking legal action further.
“Part of me expected it and knew that’s exactly what happens when you stand up for what you believe in,” she said.
OREGON GIRLS WHO PROTECTED AGAINST TRANS ATHLETE DURING ATHLETE AND FIELD MEDAL MEDAL SCORE LEGAL VICTORY IN LAWSUIT
Oregon women’s track and field 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 his case against Eckard is moving forward.
U.S. District Court Judge Youlee Yim You denied OSAA’s motion to strike a portion of the lawsuit that highlighted forms of political speech permitted by the league, including Black Lives Matter and pro-LGBTQ pride messages, which were a key point in the plaintiffs’ argument.
Anderson said she regularly saw other athletes throughout her four-year high school career protesting 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 stuff from the Black Lives Matter movement… wearing shirts, flags, that kind of thing,” she said. “I think it’s really detrimental to students to only allow them to express certain viewpoints that you agree with.”
Yet she has never seen anyone else step off a podium in protest. It’s his signature.
As Anderson and Eckard move forward with their lawsuit, they aim to bring First Amendment protections to all students in the state, regardless of their beliefs.
His lawyer at AFPI, Leigh’Ann O’Neill, told PK Press Club Digital what it would take to settle the lawsuit.
“The OSAA needs to take a very positive stand and demonstrate that it will respect all views of its athletes and participants in its other extracurricular activities in Oregon,” O’Neill said. “When are we going to see Oregon step up and make their athletes understand that you have the right to disagree with us?
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“Minimal damages are being sought in the lawsuit, which is kind of a technicality, and it’s really about ensuring that their freedom of expression is protected.”
PK Press Club Digital has contacted OSAA and Tigard High School for comment.
