Transgender athletes are beginning to displace biological girls as state champions—or at least coming close—in high-school girls’ sports.

Two transgender athletes, runner Andraya Yearwood of Connecticut and wrestler Mack Beggs of Texas, garnered national attention after capturing state titles in 2017. A third, Nattaphon Wangyot, placed among the top five in two girls’ races at Alaska’s 2016 state track and field meet.

Most state athletic associations strive to accommodate transgender athletes in some way, and some states’ laws require it. Still, many have yet to figure out how to do that while ensuring that competition remains fair for biologically female athletes.

Connecticut’s is among them. Yearwood, a biologically male sprinter who has competed as a girl since April, won the girls’ 100- and 200-meter titles at Connecticut’s state track meet for mid-sized schools in late May. Yearwood’s times would have placed him last in the boys’ 100 and 200.

Yearwood did not undergo hormone therapy to compete as a girl, and did not have to: Connecticut’s governing body for high-school sports, like Alaska’s, lets individual school districts decide who can compete as male and female. Should Yearwood, a freshman, not begin transitioning—and thereby suppressing bodily testosterone levels—he will likely win more girls’ state titles as he becomes taller, stronger, and presumably faster.

There is some logic behind not requiring young transgender athletes to undergo hormone treatments: “We feel like students shouldn’t have to transition until they’re postadolescent,” explained Billy Strickland, the Alaska State Activities Association’s executive director: “We don’t want to force someone into a lifelong medical decision when they’re 14 years old.”

Transgender athletes’ feelings, however, should not be the sole determining factor in their gender classifications. Ohio, for instance, requires boys who have not undergone hormone treatments but wish to play on girls’ teams to prove, via medical evidence, that they do not possess significant physical advantages over similarly aged biological girls. Maine has an approval process that considers competitive balance and safety for other student athletes, and Oregon requires girls who begin transitioning to compete exclusively as boys throughout high school.

Maintaining fairness in girls’ sports while respecting transgender athletes’ dignity is thus a balance that state governing bodies can and should strike. Otherwise, states’ girls’ champions will more frequently be boys.

—Ray Hacke is a graduate of the World Journalism Institute mid-career course