Texas AG investigating women’s weightlifting event that included trans athlete
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SPECIAL: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that it will investigate a recent weightlifting competition in which a biological male competed against women.
Trans athlete Jammie Booker first won the 2025 World’s Strongest Woman award in Arlington, Texas, over the weekend, prompting female runner-up Andrea Thompson, who finished second, to leave the podium in protest. The official Strongman organization later announced that Booker would be “disqualified” and awarded first place to Thompson.
Still, Paxton is pressing on now.
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Texas attorney general Ken Paxton during the Republican National Convention (RNC) at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Attorney General Paxton will not allow the radical left to sacrifice the integrity of girls’ sports for their delusional transgender agenda. OAG is investigating this incident and will take every action to protect women’s sports both in Texas and across the country,” Paxton’s office said in a statement. he said.
Paxton previously filed a lawsuit against US Masters Swimming for allowing transgender athletes to compete at a meet in San Antonio earlier this year.
In a YouTube video dating back to 2017, apparently from Booker’s own channel, Booker is seen claiming to be “trans”.
Accordingly Strongman ArchivesBooker had not competed in women’s events before last June. It’s unclear whether Booker has ever competed as a man before.
Video showing Thompson walking off the podium saying “This is ridiculous” has gone viral in recent days, sparking widespread criticism from women’s sports rights activists.
“This is a fraud against the athletes and the organizers,” Kim Jones, co-founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), told Fox News Digital.
TRANS SWIMMER BANNED FROM WORLD ATHLETICS AND FINAL RESULTS TAKEN AWAY AFTER REJECTING GENDER TESTING
Andrea Thompson (left) placed second in the 2025 World’s Strongest Woman competition, behind an athlete who is allegedly transgender. (Laurence Shahlaei)
“Female athletes deserve transparency, honesty and the basic guarantee that the competitors standing next to them are, in fact, women. That’s why gender-based eligibility and gender screening are so important. Without them, situations like these will continue to blind women and undermine every competition… Women have fought too hard for too long for their sport to be blatantly taken away from them. This cannot continue.”
Thompson suddenly became a prominent figure in the movement to protect women’s sports from male competitors, and her recognition as champion is now celebrated as a flashpoint in the movement.
Thompson shared a post in which his coach, Laurence Shahlaei, congratulated him on “winning” the event. Shahlaei made this post on Monday, a day after the incident. Shahlaei told Fox News Digital just before Strongman’s announcement that Thompson was told he would be crowned champion and an official announcement would be made.
“This win did not come without controversy, but I want to make it clear that while I support and applaud people for being who they want to be, sports are sports and women’s classes exist for a reason,” Shahlaei wrote.
Official Strongman said he was unaware of Booker’s biological sex when the competition took place.
“If we had been aware of it, or if this had been declared at any point before or during the competition, this athlete would not have been allowed to compete in the Women’s Open category. We are clear that competitors may only compete in the category for the biological sex recorded at birth,” the official Strongman said in an announcement on Tuesday.
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“The Official Strongman is inclusive and proud to run events that do not discriminate against athletes based on personal characteristics. Every athlete is welcome. However, it is our responsibility to ensure fairness and ensure that athletes are assigned to male or female categories based on whether they are registered as male or female at birth.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Strongman Official for a response to Paxton’s statement.
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