High school champion AB Hernandez is Outsports’ Trans Athlete of Year

High school state champion AB Hernandez performed under pressure this year, the trans teen bringing joy to her sports participation. The post High school champion AB Hernandez is Outsports’ Trans Athlete of Year appeared first on Outsports.

Dec 29, 2025 - 19:00

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Get AB Hernandez talking about jumping for her Southern California high school track and field team, and her eyes light up.

“I just like to stay consistent,” she told Outsports in an exclusive interview, one of the few she has done with the media.

That consistency — the perfect symmetry of speed, technique and body control — came together in March at an early-season meet this year. A personal best showed her how far she had come after an injury-plagued sophomore season.

“The first time I hit 41 feet, it had put me at No. 1 in the nation at the time,” Hernandez recalled of her triple-jump performance that day. “I just think that was a real eye-opener that I could do it and I was going to do it.”

Hernandez tied for a high jump state championship, and took gold in the triple jump. Photo courtesy of Nereyda Hernandez

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Two months later, AB Hernandez was pushing toward a California Interscholastic Federation state championship in multiple events. Voices opposing trans women in women’s sports spoke up loudly.

Yet the tall California teen stayed cool and confident.

“I would take a moment to breathe and realize that it’s just a comment,” she said, shrugging off critical public discourse. “They don’t have any courage to say it to my face, so why do I care?”

On the other side were waves of support. They were powered by her mother standing tall, with friends and teammates by her daughter’s side. Support even came from some competitors publicly standing with the young athlete.

Performance and personal strength have made AB Hernandez the 2025 Outsports Trans Athlete of the Year.

Another high school kid in Southern California

Hernandez’s journey to this point began as a middle school kid in Jurupa Valley, Calif., a city of just over 100,000 people an hour east of Los Angeles.

She’s the youngest child of Nereyda Hernandez, a self-described Catholic conservative mother — a mother worried about a child feeling alone and afraid, holding a truth inside her.

“There were days of AB not coming out of her room, hiding and not eating, before she opened about who she was,” her mother recalled. “I was realizing that my child just needed the support. That was after she’s saying, ‘Look mom, this is who I am.'”

When AB shared her truth with her mother, it set off a spark inside her.

“I saw the difference. It was a complete 180. AB told me, ‘Mom, you always said we should do what makes us happy’. I said OK.

“What do you do? This is my child, you know?”

AB’s mother Nereyda (right) went from struggling with her daughter being transgender, to her biggest booster. Photo courtesy of Nereyda Hernandez

AB Hernandez finds happiness in sports

As a high school freshman, AB Hernandez found that sports were part of that happiness.

“I wasn’t even thinking about joining sports until my friends mentioned that, ‘hey, you should join. It’d be so fun with us being there’,” Hernandez remembered.

She found a place in track and field and volleyball. An opportunity for her grew in the jumps.

“I originally signed up for the hurdles, but head coach wanted me to try the jumps,” she said. “He had just had a jumper who graduated and he wanted someone to fill that spot.

“I worked every day to try and fill that spot, and eventually I did.”

Her sophomore year she showed flashes of potential, but she had to fight through leg injuries. She ended up third in the triple jump at CIF South Sectionals that year and learned just how much grit she had.

“It was a struggle to overcome the injury,” she said. “I had to learn how to take time and actually heal, and not just jump to the next thing.”

By that time she was growing into her own as a person as much as a student-athlete. Her flair, her style and her confidence were all dialing in.

“I’ve always known who I am,” AB said about her coming out and her ascendance in sports. “I keep working at it. Sports have always been a part of my life, but I’m always trying something new.”

Another noticeable piece of her evolution is the flawless flare that shows up on the medal stand and shines under volleyball field house lights.

“I started with makeup in eighth grade. Ever since then it’s just been getting better and better, more high-end products.”

Mom definitely has her own perspective about that: “It’s too expensive, that’s all I gotta say.”

Trans athlete AB Hernandez with a gold medal — | Photo by Kirby Lee/Getty Images

Support and joy for the trans athlete

By the time AB Hernandez was preparing to take her attempts at the CIF State Track and Field Championships in May, she was national news, online fodder and repeatedly misgendered in the news media.

She was the target of hecklers at meets. Her mother was being stalked and harassed by a neighboring school board president who is now running to be the state’s superintendent for education.

Two years ago, two other transgender girls who qualified for CIF finals decided to not compete, public criticism getting to them.

The week of this year’s state meet, the CIF made a rule change: Any cisgender girl who finished directly behind a trans girl — namely Hernandez — would be awarded the same place as her. Plus, an extra place would granted to a cisgender girl if a trans girl qualified.

Hernandez won a California state championship in the triple jump, was in a three-way tie for a state title in the high jump and finished second in the long jump. Her smile graced the podium.

One of the competitors she defeated told ABC News, “She doesn’t deserve any of the hate, and adults shouldn’t be hating on a 16-year-old.”

The support was welcome.

“I knew some people were in my corner, because a few girls had texted me and said, ‘Hey we’re on your side,'” Hernandez said. “For the amount of people to actually be on my side, it was a shock. I felt so much… emotion and it pumped me up to just really hone in and trust what I knew what to do and show these people who came out to support me that.

“I can come out on top, regardless of what’s happening.”

Hernandez blocked out the noise as effectively as she blocked spikes enroute to league co-MVP honors Photo Courtesy: Nereyda Hernandez

That same spirit came out in the recent volleyball season. Some teams on the schedule chose to forfeit matches against Hernandez’s team. One school, however, filled a hole in the Jurupa Valley’s schedule and played in place of a team that opted out.

Jurupa Valley ended the year in the state playoffs, and Hernandez was the co-MVP of her conference, voted on by the league’s coaches.

She accept her award with smiles, and in the perfect dress, leg warmers and Uggs, all style.

‘When you’re happy, all you see is joy.’

As Hernandez spoke to Outsports last week, the trans teen was surrounded by school friends enjoying their winter break. Now the defending state champ is eyeing the upcoming season and has a lofty goal in her best event, the triple jump — the one event she did not win at the CIF state meet earlier this year.

“I could see 43 feet,” she said. “maybe 44.”

A 44-and-a-half-inch jump is the CIF state meet record. A jump better than 44 feet, 11 3/4 inches would grab a California state and national high school record.

As for the attention, she’d rather it was placed on her skill, not her identity.

“It’s boring,” she said. “It doesn’t affect me, but its boring and basic.”

She does not know what her excellence means in the bigger picture, especially in a time when governing bodies and politicians want to keep her and trans girls like her on the sidelines in girls sports. She finds joy in resistance but also joy in competing.

“People need to see that our community is strong,” AB said. “Whether people like it or not, LGBTQ people are always going to exist.

“I just find the joy in everything and the support. I’m a very happy person, and I feel like when you’re happy, all you see is joy.”