California High School 400-Meter Champion Had Her Gold Medal Stripped Away For Excessive Celebration (Sprayed Her Shoes With a Fire Extinguisher)

Fox News – California high school girls' track athlete Clara Adams broke down in tears during her first TV interview since having her state championship revoked.

Adams, who took first place in the 400-meter final on Saturday, was penalized for excessive celebration when she prayed her shoes with a fire extinguisher after crossing the finish line.

California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) officials deemed the act unsportsmanlike and disqualified her.

"I worked so hard for that title," she said while crying in an interview with KSBW-TV.

Adams also lost the opportunity to compete in the 200-meter race.

People never fail to fascinate me with their uncontrollable urge to insert themselves into situations. Or their desperate need to enforce rules without being able to take a step back and think to themselves, "Do I really need to do this? Is what's happening here really that bad? Will disqualifying this athlete cause more or less problems for us in the future than if I just let it go? 24 hours from now, am I going to be happy that I stripped this high school girl's state championship away for a celebration that was a tribute to Olympic Gold Medalist Maurice Greene? Or will I think 'Damn... I really wish I wasn't dealing with this shit right now'"

You would think the people in charge of the California High School State Track Championship would just want to get through the event with as little controversy as possible so they can go home that night and get on with their lives. I'll never relate to people who think otherwise. I umpired Little League Baseball for years. I didn't know every little rule down to a T. I didn't have the perfect strike zone. Sometimes I fucked up calls. But I was always one of the more well-liked umpires, because in my opinion, the key to being a good official in sports (especially youth sports) is to be able to look at situations rationally, and be as invisible as possible. Don't stop the play and call a kid out because his foot barely crossed the batter's box on a base hit when there's not a single opposing fan or coach who called it out. Don't balk the 11-year old pitcher every time he comes set a little sloppy, because it's not actually affecting the game in anyway. And when the girl who wins the 400-meter dash does a harmless fire extinguisher celebration, a celebration I guarantee not a single opposing competitor, coach, parent, or fan was upset about, don't start yelling in her face and hit her with a DQ. It's just causing problems that never needed to exist. SO MANY officials across all sports will never understand that. They think the more rules you can enforce, the better you are at your job. Even if it means starting so much drama it makes national headlines. I will never understand how people don't get that. Just let the kids play man. 

AND WHAT ABOUT THE TRANS ATHLETES?!?!

That's what this is really about right? How could one possibly blog a story about an athlete being stripped of her state championship for a fire extinguisher celebration without tying it back to trans athletes. Seemingly every other article, or tweet about this incident manages to do so. 

That's right Collin. It's VERY important that we find a way to make this about politics. The more things we can make about politics the better. That's what the world needs more of right now. The internet is so god damn exhausting. 

Just give Clara Adams her medal back California. It's not like the girl who came in second place but was awarded gold on a technicality actually feels like she earned it. It's almost mean what they're doing to her as well. She's never going to be able to look at that medal at think to herself, "I was the best. I had the fastest 400-meter in the state of California in 2025."

Athletes don't think like that. They all know who was really the best. And honestly, it was a pretty good celebration. I'm all for a good celebration. They make sports more fun. There are no serious people who think Clara Adams doesn't deserve to have that gold medal, other than the rules official who inserted himself into the situation and is stubbornly sticking to his guns because he went on a weird power trip and refuses to admit he was a fucking idiot for doing so.