Following the national controversy at the California track-and-field championships in Clovis in May, federal education czar Linda McMahon said Wednesday the state is violating Title IX by including trans athletes in women’s sports.

McMahon also said that California must rescind the two gold medals and one silver won by trans athlete AB Hernandez at the state meet.

The office of Gov. Gavin Newsom responded in a post on X, saying McMahon “is confusing government with her WrestleMania days — dramatic, fake, and completely divorced from reality.”

The governor’s office noted that California is one of 22 states with laws requiring trans athletes to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity.

McMahon gave the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation 10 days to comply with six demands, including a promise to forbid males from participating in women’s sports and adopting “biology-based definitions of the words ‘male and female,’ ” a news release from the federal education department stated.

McMahon said she would refer findings to the U.S. Department of Justice.

“Although Governor Gavin Newsom admitted months ago it was ‘deeply unfair’ to allow men to compete in women’s sports, both the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation continued as recently as a few weeks ago to allow men to steal female athletes’ well-deserved accolades and to subject them to the indignity of unfair and unsafe competitions,” McMahon said.

The state Department of Education said in a statement that it “believes all students should have the opportunity to learn and play at school, and we have consistently applied existing law in support of students’ rights to do so.”

A CIF spokesperson said that the organization doesn’t comment on legal matters.

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Athlete’s Mother: This Is ‘Abuse of Power’

The inclusion of Hernandez in the state track and field championships at Buchanan High School attracted widespread attention. The nonprofit CIF changed its rules ahead of competition, allowing multiple competitors to share awards should an athlete’s ranking be displaced by a trans athlete’s performance.

That meant if Hernandez took first place in an event, the athlete who came in second would also get gold.

Hernandez, a junior from Jurupa Valley High School in Riverside County, shared first place in the high jump and triple jump, and shared second in the long jump.

The athlete’s mother, Nena Hernandez, told The Sacramento Bee: “This is not justice, it’s manipulation. This is evidently abuse of power and a continuous direct attack on the rights of trans women and trans girls.”

The Trump Administration maintains that allowing biological males in girls’ sports and in “intimate spaces” such as locker rooms, violates the landmark Title IX, which was created to end sex-based discrimination in education.

Trump has threatened to withhold federal education funding to states, school districts, and universities that don’t follow his edict against trans athletes competing in women’s sports.