athlete

A British athlete crowned the world’s strongest woman says she was “robbed” of her winning moment after it emerged the original champion was a transgender woman who was ineligible to compete.

Andrea Thompson was awarded the title retrospectively after American athlete Jammie Booker was disqualified.

Thompson told BBC Sport the competition, held in Arlington, Texas, was “overshadowed by somebody who shouldn’t have been there”.

“I was very frustrated and angry with what she’s done,” she said. “She lied and was very dishonest, and took away a lot of things from a lot of women.

“The lady that came 11th didn’t get the chance to do the third day… to have the top 10 status in the world.”

Organisers, Official Strongman, said “competitors could only compete in the category for their biological sex recorded at birth”, and that they had disqualified the athlete in question “who is biologically male”.

“Had we been aware, or had this been declared at any point before or during the competition, this athlete would not have been permitted to compete in the Woman’s Open category,” the statement added.

“It is our responsibility to ensure fairness and ensure athletes are assigned to men or women’s categories based on whether they are recorded as male or female at birth.”

Thompson, first crowned world’s strongest woman in 2018, said the manner she had won the title had taken the gloss off it, but praised Strongman for “investigating and rectifying the situation so quickly”.

“What should be a momentous occasion has sadly been overshadowed by scandal and dishonesty from someone who was welcomed into our crazy sport,” she said in a post on her Instagram, external account.

“I am not only frustrated with not being able to celebrate a win, but also for the ladies who had their time to shine on the podium or reach the final day, taken away from them.”

Thompson, from Suffolk, said she and fellow competitors were “mentally drained” having “received backlash and insults” since the decision, which “needs to stop”.

“This has been the most exhausting experience of my career,” she added.

“We, as a community are taking a stand. Protecting women’s sport as we have fought so hard for.”

A spokesman for the Long Beach Unified School District announced on Wednesday that it has completed an internal investigation regarding seven athletes who had violated CIF rule 202, which states all transfers must file accurate paperwork, and imposed punishment on three football coaches involved with transfers, including removing head coach Justin Utupo.

In a media release, the district stated that Poly’s walk-on head coach has been released and won’t be allowed to coach in the district. One assistant coach who resigned is also barred from coaching. Another assistant has been relieved from all coaching duties and transferred to another location to be a campus staff assistant. The district said it concluded “three coaches engaged in unethical conduct inconsistent with CIF eligibility rules.”

Utupo said he resigned Wednesday morning after meeting with his players and was unaware of the district announcement.

Utupo came from Lakewood this season to be head coach for a Long Beach Poly program that has won 20 CIF titles. After a 5-5 season, the school announced it would not allow the team to be part of the Southern Section playoffs.

Going forward, the district said it will review all athletic programs in its district to ensure “protocols, training and expectations are clearly understood and consistently applied.” The district is also waiting to see if the Southern Section has any additional sanctions. Seven Poly athletes are listed in the Southern Section transfer portal as having been denied eligibility for two years for violating bylaw 202.

LA28 released the detailed daily competition schedule for the biggest Olympics in history on Wednesday, laying out every event for the 19 days of competition that will feature more than 11,000 athletes across 51 sports.

Along with being the largest in Games history, the 2028 Summer Olympics will be the first to include more female athletes than men. The schedule honors the historic moment for women in sports by showcasing the women’s 100-meter final at the Coliseum as the primetime, marquee event on the first official day of competition on July 15, 2028.

“The reason we’re throwing out the women’s 100 meters on the first day is because we want to come on these Games with a bang,” Shana Ferguson, LA28’s chief of sport and head of Games delivery, said on a conference call. “And likely that race will be among the most watched of all the races in the Games. We just want to start that Day 1 with a massive, massive showcase of the fastest females in the world.”

The women’s 100-meter final will punctuate Day 1 competition that will feature eight women’s finals, the most for a single day at the Olympics. The men’s 100-meter final will follow on Day 2.

Scheduling the women’s final on Day 1 will require the top athletes to run up to three, 100-meter races in one day as opposed to putting qualifying on a separate day as the semifinals and finals. Olympic organizers presented the idea to athlete commissions within LA28 and through World Athletics. While some preferred to keep the status quo for the women’s 100 meter, Janet Evans, LA28’s chief athlete officer, said the majority of competitors simply wanted to know when their races would be so they could plan their training accordingly.

“I think a lot of athletes will be looking immediately at the schedule and planning their training around it,” said Evans, a four-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming. “That was certainly top of mind as we made this decision.”

Making the schedule came with extensive consultation with athletes and international sport federations. Organizers considered the sun position for diving, which will be held outdoors at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center. They wanted to ensure that fans waiting to enter arenas wouldn’t be left in the sun during a mid-day competition. Weary of heat affecting horses in Santa Anita, they took care to schedule equestrian events for either early morning or evening sessions.

With track and field setting the stage in the first week, swimming competitions traditionally take place first were shifted to the second week to allow organizers to build an indoor swimming pool in SoFi Stadium after the venue helps host the opening ceremony on July 14.

But keeping with Olympic tradition, the marathon will still take place on the final weekend of the Games, with the women running at Venice Beach on Day 15 (July 29), and the men competing on Day 16 (July 30). As one of the final Olympic events, marathon medalists typically receive their medals during the closing ceremony, which will take place at the Coliseum on July 30, beginning at 6 p.m.

The 2028 Games are approaching major checkpoints with less than three years until the opening ceremony. The Paralympic competition schedule will be released later this year. The volunteer program has already opened for community opportunities while applications for Games time volunteers will open in summer of 2026. Olympics ticket registration will open in January 2026.

Fans can begin registering for the ticket lottery in January and purchasing windows for those who are selected in the lottery will begin in spring 2026. Prices start at $28. With concerns about sky-high ticket prices for sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup or the World Series, Ferguson said LA28 will not use dynamic pricing, but didn’t state any specifics about the prices.

Ferguson said the organizing committee has 14 million tickets for the Olympics and Paralympics, which would break the ticket record set by Paris 2024. The biggest Olympics, and the most jam-packed schedule, would warrant that kind of attendance.

“What a great responsibility that is for us,” Ferguson said of hosting the biggest Olympics in history. “The care and concern that went into building this competition schedule — I will tell you that the folks on the team who did it really, truly, had a lot of sleepless nights because they wanted to get this right for every single athlete, regardless of sport.”

LA28 competition dates

Opening Ceremony: July 14
3×3 Basketball: July 17-22,
Archery: July 21-28
Artistic Gymnastics: July 15-25
Artistic Swimming: July 25-29
Athletics: July 15-30
Badminton: July 15-24
Baseball: July 13-19
Basketball: July 12-30
Beach Volleyball: July 15-29
BMX Freestyle: July 28-29
BMX Racing: July 15-16
Boxing: July 15-30
Canoe Slalom: July 14-22
Canoe Sprint: July 25-29
Cricket: July 12-29
Cycling Road: July 19-23
Cycling Track: July 25-30
Diving: July 25-30
Equestrian: July 15-29
Fencing: July 15-23
Flag Football: July 15-22
Football (Soccer): July 12-29
Golf: July 19-29
Handball: July 12-28
Hockey (Field): July 12-29
Judo: July 15-22
Lacrosse: July 24-29
Modern Pentathlon: July 15-18
Mountain Bike: July 15-18
Open Water Swimming: July 17-18
Rhythmic Gymnastics: July 27-29
Rowing: July 15-22
Rowing Coastal Beach Sprints: July 24-25
Rugby Sevens: July 12-18
Sailing: July 16-28
Shooting: July 15-25
Skateboarding: July 18-27
Softball: July 23-29
Sport Climbing: July 24-29
Squash: July 15-24
Surfing: July 15-23
Swimming: July 22-30
Table Tennis: July 22-30
Taekwondo: July 26-29
Tennis: July 19-28
Trampoline Gymnastics: July 21
Triathlon: July 15-20
Volleyball: July 15-30
Water Polo: July 12-23
Weightlifting: July 25-29
Wrestling: July 24-30
Closing Ceremony: July 30