NEW HAVEN, Conn. Andraya Yearwood hears the comments, usually from adults and usually not to her face.
She shouldn’t be running, they say, not against girls.
Yearwood, a 17-year-old junior at Cromwell High School, is one of two transgender high school sprinters in Connecticut, transitioning to female.
She recently finished second in the 55-meter dash at the state open indoor track championships. The winner, Terry Miller of Bloomfield High, is also transgender and set a girls state indoor record of 6.95 seconds. Yearwood finished in 7.01 seconds and the third-place competitor, who is not transgender, finished in 7.23 seconds.
Miller and Yearwood also topped the 100-meter state championships last year, and Miller won the 300 this season.
Audrey DaDamio (Bloomfield Village, Mich./Seaholm HS)
Personal bests: 1,600 – 4:52.10; Mile – 4:55.30; 3,000 – 10:04.31; 3,200 – 10:24.78
Audrey DaDamio is the 2020 Michigan Division I cross country champion and state Meet of Champions winner. She was fifth overall at the AAU national cross country championships (15-18 age group) last week with the No. 6 high school time ever recorded at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Florida. She is the Michigan Indoor Track Series state meet record holder in the 3,200 meters (10:24.78) and has won six regional and three Oakland County titles in track and cross country. DaDamio is the granddaughter of Olympic speed skating champion Terry McDermott and sister of Notre Dame distance All-American Rachel DaDamio.