West Virginia transgender athlete wins state shot put title amid court fight

Becky Pepper-Jackson won the West Virginia Class AAA girls shot put state championship with a personal-best throw of 38 feet, 11¾ inches, a result that drew the Bridgeport High School sophomore into a statewide sports and legal fight. She edged the runner-up by just over 2 feet in the sixth and final round.

Pepper-Jackson is the openly transgender athlete who sought to compete in girls sports in West Virginia. Her case had already moved through federal court, where she won an injunction allowing her to compete while the challenge to the state’s school sports ban continued.

The dispute turned on West Virginia’s Save Women’s Sports Act, signed in 2021, which bars transgender girls from girls’ school sports. In 2024, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the law could not be applied to Pepper-Jackson under Title IX, keeping her eligible to compete while the legal fight advanced. By then, her track record included multiple seasons in track and field, including a freshman season and a previous finish of third in the discus throw.

Pepper-Jackson had publicly identified as a girl since elementary school and continued competing through a string of court battles. West Virginia officials and supporters of the law argued the ban was about fairness in girls’ sports. Opponents, including the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of West Virginia and Lambda Legal, said the measure discriminated against a student athlete.

The Supreme Court had already heard arguments in the broader challenge by the time Pepper-Jackson stood on the podium with the shot put title, and the final ruling arrived on June 30, 2026. In a 6-3 decision, the court upheld West Virginia’s law.