California continues to allow biological males to compete in, and dominate, girls’ high school sports.

It’s a disgrace, as we’ve noted before. And it’s not improved by the fact the California Interscholastic Federation has decided to give out duplicate gold medals to girls who finish second to a boy.

The story of how California’s leaders allowed a private, adult sexual fetish to become a public virtue imposed on children will puzzle future generations, once the insanity of wokeness has passed.

But there is another story to be told here; the courage and perseverance shown by female athletes, who looked past the political games played by grown-ups at their expense, and gave it their best.

Some of the girls chose to take a stand in protesting against biological males. Others boycotted medal ceremonies in which they would have to share a podium with a boy who had jumped further than them.

That also took courage. We applaud those girls for standing their ground.

But more broadly, we applaud the girls who knew the deck was stacked against them — and who refused to quit.

They showed up anyway, even though they were competing against someone whose DNA made them taller, faster, and stronger.

They didn’t care. They gave it their best.

They were determined to show they regretted nothing. Not the years of practice, the early mornings, the frozen winter days, the sweltering summer meets, the injuries, the nerves, the disappointments, and the hard-fought victories.

They were determined to run their own races, and heave their own javelins, regardless of who told them they could not.

The girls of California who showed up at the Southern Section championship final were champions simply for showing up and competing — and not because we should hand out participation trophies, but because they had to face down a bizarre injustice, and they did it with grit and grace.

California girls are special — and not just in the way the Beach Boys sang about them.

California girls are strong. They have to be. Those who run the state have made it that way.

It’s not fair. Life isn’t. But they are showing us that doesn’t need to hold us back.