athlete

“We got to make a TikTok video.”

That was overheard on Friday morning as two City Section cross-country runners walked together in the rain at Pierce College at the cross-country prelims.

TikTok didn’t exist 50 years ago when I went to my first City Section cross-country meet. My annual pilgrimage to the City prelims or finals always leads me to discover a story for readers to enjoy. It’s like a squirrel looking for a nut — it’s certain to be found. Since cross-country was one of the first sports I covered, I always want to return because it is so indicative of what high school sports is supposed to be about: Athletes competing for the love of their sport.

City cross-country also gives you an added insight into what Los Angeles looks like with the many different nationalities represented. There were athletes from 77 Los Angeles Unified School District schools who were transported by 34 buses. Rival athletes (Carson and Banning, among others) shared buses because of cutbacks to transportation dispatchers and holding the event on a Friday. When you add charter schools, there were close to 140 schools’ athletes participating in the prelims.

All it takes to find a story is show up and ask a coach.

In particular, Monroe coach Leo Hernandez always has a story to provide. In 2024, I wrote about love brewing at Monroe. In 2016, I wrote about the accidental cross-country star at Monroe. In 2022, I wrote about the Monroe athlete using running to help him cope.

This year’s feel-good story is about 16-year-old junior Miguel Mora of Carson. He had never run cross-country in his life until this winter. He was a soccer player for 10 years, playing junior varsity at Carson. He was always leading the soccer team when it came to running.

“I ran a 4:42 mile, and I had no training,” Mora said. “So I was like, ‘Oh, I want to see what I can do.’”

He gave up soccer, which his soccer-fan father initially didn’t like. After Mora won the Marine League 1,600 title last spring, he remembers visiting his father in the bleachers and seeing him smile.

“He said, “Congrats. You made the right choice.’”

Ethan Funk (right) of Palisades and Miguel Mora of Carson finished one-two at the City Section Division I cross country prelims. They will face off in Saturday’s finals at Pierce College.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Despite his limited cross-country experience, Mora is one of the favorites to win the City Division I championship on Nov. 21 at Pierce College. He finished second at Friday’s prelims with a time of 15:26.30. The winner was another junior, Ethan Funk of Palisades who ran 15:23.70.

Funk and Mora were friendly with each other before the race. Again, these cross-country athletes are different. There’s no trash talking, no disrespect. Their task is grueling, and they understand what an accomplishment it is to train by running 16 miles in a week and three miles in a race.

“It makes me push myself to the max,” said Mora, who’s an A student and takes calculus.

As for switching sports, Mora said, “I feel like I was wasting my potential. So I decided to stick to track.”

Welcome to the world of high school cross-country, where there are stories to tell at every race if you ask.

A Great Britain and Wales marathon runner, who shocked the elite to win a place at the World Championships, was banned after returning a positive drugs test.

Josh Griffiths, 33, was given a three-month ban by the World Athletics’ Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) after Benzoylecgonine – which is found in the body when it processes cocaine – appeared in his system following May’s Belfast City Marathon.

Griffiths, who represented Great Britain at the 2017 and 2022 Worlds and ran for Wales at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, denied ever taking cocaine or any other social drug.

He could not prove how cocaine entered his system, but in their ruling the AIU accepted that any ingestion was both out of competition and “unrelated to sport” as they imposed the ban.

Griffiths’ ban ran for three months from the hearing date of 19 June 2026. In addition his race results from the day of the Belfast Marathon – 3 May – until the end of the ban were expunged.

Following the findings, Griffiths accepted the anti-doping rule violation and the sanction.

The Carmarthenshire athlete rose to prominence when he finished as the fastest Briton as a club runner in the 2017 London Marathon, earning him a place in the GB squad for that year’s World Championships.

He went on to record an eighth-place finish in London in 2021, having turned professional after the 2017 success.

The AIU said in its report that Griffiths remarked it was “absolutely impossible” when he was told of the initial adverse finding in his sample and that “there must have been a mistake”.

Benzoylecgonine, which is found in the body when it processes cocaine, appeared in both samples of his urine provided following the Belfast marathon.

Griffiths provided details of his activities and whereabouts leading up to the 3 May race, as well as his stay at the official race hotel, stressing he did not attend any social events, consume any alcohol and that contact had been mainly with other athletes and race staff.

At a later hearing, he reiterated that he had never knowingly ingested cocaine and was not aware of anyone close to him using the drug in the lead-up to the Belfast race.

Griffiths submitted scientific data to support his claim that any ingestion was out of competition, something the AIU went on to agree with.

Rachel Apa, a former Division I field hockey player and first-time marathon runner, died Sunday after she collapsed while participating in the New York City Marathon. She was 24.

Apa experienced a “medical incident” during the race, according to marathon organizers New York Road Runners, and a bystander administered CPR until medical staff arrived. Staff continued with CPR and also used a defibrillator in their efforts to revive her. EMS transported Apa to Mount Sinai Medical Center, where doctors tried to save her life for more than six hours, her father, Steve Apa, told the New York Times.

“We are deeply saddened by Rachel’s passing following running in Sunday’s race,” the Road Runners said in a statement. “Our thoughts and sincere sympathies are with her family, friends, and the entire running community.”

According to multiple media outlets, the family was told by doctors that Apa had died of rhabdomyolysis — “a rare condition in which muscle cells break down and release a substance into the blood that can lead to kidney failure,” according to the Mayo Clinic. Marathon runners are listed as people that could be affected by the condition.

The Office of Chief Medical Examiner in New York did not immediately respond to an inquiry for this article.

Apa spent four years with the Bucknell University field hockey team before graduating in 2024 with a degree in business administration. She made 42 starts in 63 overall games, compiling 40 points on 17 goals and six assists.

A product manager at TE Connectivity who was pursuing an MBA at Charleston Southern University in South Carolina, Apa decided earlier this year to run the New York City Marathon as part of the Parkinson’s Champions team.

“My grandfather was my role model growing up,” she wrote on the team’s fundraising page. “He taught me to stay active, push my limits, and embrace challenges, shaping my love for sports and movement. Later in life, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and I watched as the disease slowly took away the freedom to move that he once loved so much. He passed away in 2022, but the lessons he taught me continue to drive me forward.”

The fundraiser garnered more than $21,000 in donations, far surpassing Apa’s stated goal of $4,000.

Her father, Steve Apa, told the New York Times she had been training for the marathon for months.

“It’s unfathomable,” he said of his daughter’s death. “Perfect health, perfect shape, 24 years old.”

He told multiple media outlets that his daughter was accompanied to the race by her mother and some friends, while he stayed home in Lewisberry, Pa., and tracked her progress on an app, texting with her along the way.

Several miles into the race, Steve Apa told NBC News, his daughter texted “I feel amazing” and “I’ve never felt this good.”

Soon after, at around the 14-mile mark, Apa’s mother shot a video of her daughter smiling and waving as she ran by.

A few miles later, Steve Apa told the outlets, he started receiving texts from his daughter that said things like “ugh” and “ow.” He stopped hearing from her around mile 20 or 21 but could see on the app that she was still running, until her progress stopped at mile 24.

According to the New York Police Department, police officers assigned to the marathon “observed a 24-year-old female experiencing a medical episode near mile marker 24” at around 1:40 p.m. “EMS responded and transported the female to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition,” NYPD said in an email.

Apa’s mother rushed to the location and was told by an EMS worker that her daughter had been taken away in an ambulance, Steve Apa told NBC News. Michelle Apa received a ride to the hospital in another ambulance.

Apa was declared dead at around 9:40 p.m., Steve Apa told the New York Times.

According to the Road Runners, the last time a New York City Marathon participant suffered a medical incident during the race and later died at a hospital was 2024.

World Athletics described her as “an inspiration to many, on and off the track”, highlighting her historic European gold medal in Rome in 2024.

Athletics Ireland, the country’s governing body for the sport, said Mageean was “much-loved and inspirational”.

“Her courage, warmth and spirit will leave a lasting legacy,” the organisation said.

Conal Heatley, the chief executive of Commonwealth Games Northern Ireland, described Mageean as “one of the best of us”.

He told BBC News NI she had carried herself with “incredible dignity” throughout her illness and was a “fantastic figure for the island of Ireland”.

The Camogie Association also paid tribute to Mageean, with its president Brian Molloy describing her as a great friend of the sport, both as a player and a supporter.

“In her all-too-short life, Ciara touched the hearts of so many,” he said.

“Her self-belief and commitment to her craft will always be inspirational and she will be fondly remembered by all who had the privilege of knowing her.”

The stars never aligned for her at the Olympic Games. She ran in two – Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2021 – but was never at her best and even when she was two years ago, a last-minute injury stopped her competing in Paris.

She was all set to try again for Los Angeles in 2028, which was to be the swansong of her career.

That was before the devastating cancer diagnosis in May 2025.

Even then Ciara decided to share her news publicly. It was those qualities again of resilience and determination to fight and in doing so provide inspiration to those who would find themselves in a similar situation.

That was who she was, in athletics and in life – an inspiration to others

I have many memories of Ciara including surprising her at home in Portaferry with the BBC Sport Northern Ireland Personality of the Year in 2023.

Filming in Portaferry was always fun because her mum, Catherine, would always lay out a welcoming spread of scones and cake and tea.

It’s Catherine and Ciara’s dad Chris, her husband Thomas and family that are in my thoughts today.

When I last spoke to Ciara, her relentless positivity remained undimmed.

Her infectious personality, quick wit, and smile left a lasting impression and her achievements on the track will serve as inspiration to others to never lose hope in the pursuit of dreams.

Oct. 25, 2026 3 AM PT

KALAMA, Wash. — Colorado and Washington are reliably Democratic states where elected officials have rejected moves to ban transgender women and girls from female sports competitions. Now activists have gone around lawmakers to put proposed bans on both states’ ballots.

At a time when some Democratic leaders nationwide are recalibrating their approach to transgender issues, particularly sports, and polls show Americans generally back the bans, supporters are optimistic they will pass and open the door to similar efforts in other places where lawmakers have blocked bans.

Though the issue has been debated in many legislatures, this is the first time it’s going to voters.

“What is happening in 2026 is a testing ground for the future,” said Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which supports LGBTQ+ rights.

Twenty-seven states — including all where Republicans control both the legislature and governor’s office — already have such laws.

The efforts are billed as a way to protect women and girls and keep separate spaces for them, tapping into a concern that’s gained momentum. President Trump has taken steps to roll back transgender rights. The Supreme Court has upheld state sports bans.

A June poll from Quinnipiac University found that about 7 in 10 registered voters think transgender women and girls should not be allowed to play on female sports teams. About one-quarter think they should. Democrats are divided, with about half saying transgender women and girls should be allowed and about half saying they should not.

Robert Preuhs, a professor of political science at Metropolitan State University of Denver, said the absence of public polls on Colorado’s ballot measure, which also covers college sports, makes it hard to predict whether it will pass. “It’s probably going to get more support than some of the Republican candidates that will run,” he said.

Since transgender restrictions gained traction this decade, states with Democratic-led governors’ offices and legislatures generally have rejected proposals such as banning transgender people from the bathrooms that match their gender identity and restricting gender-affirming care. Most Republican-led states have adopted those policies.

In addition to the two blue-state questions, a measure in Arizona would broaden an existing ban to include private schools, and one in Nebraska would add an existing state law to the state constitution.

There’s not a clear consensus on whether transgender women and girls have a competitive advantage. Factors include the age of the athlete, the sport, whether the athlete went through male puberty and how long they’ve received hormone therapy.

But the idea that girls are being cheated is personal for some athletes.

Ahnaleigh Wilson, a 17-year-old junior at Eastmont High School, about 25 miles north of Seattle, has been speaking out against allowing transgender girls to compete in girls’ sports since she was in junior high. She said she’d won all of her 1,600-meter races in seventh and eighth grade — until she finished second to a transgender athlete in a major meet.

“Women have fought for Title IX and our own categories and it’s very important that we keep the dignity of that, and let women have their own sports and their own spaces to be safe and completely fair,” she said, referencing the federal law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities.

Opponents say excluding transgender girls is also unfair.

“They will say that they want to protect kids and in particular, young girls,” said Nadine Bridges, executive director of One Colorado, which is leading the opposition to the measure there, “but I don’t understand how you can protect kids and discriminate against kids at the same time.”

The Washington measure would require that a healthcare provider verify the student’s “biological sex, relying only on one or more of the following: The student’s reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup, or normal endogenously produced testosterone levels.”

“We see that as being as simple as a checkbox,” said Let’s Go Washington spokesperson Hallie Herzberg. “Doctors can use the history of the patient from treating them all their lives or their medical history forms.”

But Dr. Libby Loft, who opposes the measure, says the language calls for a genital inspection as part of a physical, or expensive testing.

“I think it doesn’t make any sense to force the working families of … girl sports players in Washington to pay for unnecessary medical tests to be able to weed out an estimated five or 10 girls in the state of Washington, trans girls,” Loft said.

She fears the verification requirement will lead to fewer girls — transgender or not — playing sports.

Mulvihill and Cooper write for the Associated Press. Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, N.J.