Civil rights leaders and elected officials are demanding the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) reinstate a gold medal stripped from 16-year-old Salinas sprinter Clara Adams who celebrated her win by spraying her cleats with a fire extinguisher in tribute to Olympian Maurice Greene.

As reported by KTVU, Adams was disqualified from the competition for celebrating her 400-meter state championship victory by briefly spraying her cleats with a fire extinguisher — while standing on a grassy area, away from the track and other athletes. The gesture was a tribute to Olympic gold medalist Maurice Greene, who celebrated the same way in 2004.

Adams' father handed her the extinguisher after her uncle, a former firefighter, showed her how to use it safely. “My feet were on fire,” she said. “I just ran 53 seconds in the 400 for the second time in my life. That was a big moment for me.”

As KGO reports, despite the celebratory nature of the act, CIF officials quickly ruled it “unsportsmanlike conduct,” disqualified Adams, stripped her of the state title, banned her from running the 200-meter event, and, according to her family, physically escorted her from the infield. “I was just like, ‘what?’” she recalled. “I can’t even explain what was going through my mind.”

The incident unfolded at the same CIF championship meet where transgender athlete AB Hernandez’s top-tier performances were similarly undercut—this time by a last-minute policy shift that redefined podium placements, as reported by SFist. That rule change, enacted days earlier, came in response to political pressure from the Trump administration and reshaped how medals were awarded to avoid declaring Hernandez an outright winner. In both cases, CIF has faced mounting criticism for decisions that appear more reactive to politics and optics than athlete well-being.

The CIF has not responded to multiple requests for comment. Civil rights attorney Adante Pointer accused the organization of being arbitrary and heavy-handed by disqualifying Adams: “They robbed her of her achievement and have yet to explain what they based their actions on.” His firm is exploring legal options, including compensation for emotional distress. Co-counsel Marlon Monroe added, “You have a young girl who should be celebrated as a champion, but instead was publicly humiliated.”

According to NBC Bay Area, Adams said she’s now in counseling, adding, "I’ll never get that back. I’ll never get that back to enjoy the medal  around my neck around everybody. And I’ll never get that back to run the  200, and we’ll never know what could’ve happened.”

Support has poured in from both Democrats and Republicans, including California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo. “Officials clearly overreacted,” Alejo wrote. The Monterey County Republican Party also issued a statement calling her win "a source of pride."

Meanwhile, Adams has received attention from universities like UCLA and Princeton, and Nike has reportedly reached out with interest. “I’m going to bounce back,” she said. “That’s the kind of athlete I am.”

Image: eyetoeyePIX/Getty Images

Previously: Trans Athlete AB Hernandez Wins Triple Medals at CA Track Finals Amid Policy Change, Protests

Lisa Truong launched a diaper drive that's distributed more than 66 million diapers across California; Rudy Corpuz Jr. turned his rough past into a peacekeeping mission; and Chris Thoms ran every street in Alameda County to fight hunger.

One night in 2009, Lisa Truong sat on her couch watching The Oprah Winfrey Show while her infant and toddler slept nearby. Oprah posed a question—what can you do to help families in your own community?—and Lisa didn’t just hear it. She answered it.

The next week, over a glass of wine with her friend Rachel Fudge, Lisa came up with an idea that would soon grow into a full-blown nonprofit operation. They decided to organize a Mother’s Day diaper drive. The concept was simple, but radical—help new moms with the one thing no one was talking about: diapers. Within weeks, they had collected 15,000. Within months, they’d uncovered a national policy gap when they learned diapers weren’t covered by WIC or food stamps. And within a few years, they were changing state policy.

Fifteen years later, Lisa’s organization, Help a Mother Out, has distributed more than 66 million diapers across California, developed a first-of-its-kind citywide diaper bank in San Francisco, and helped spark public funding models adopted by other states. But for Lisa, it’s not about the numbers—it’s about the mom who didn’t have to dilute her baby’s bottles to ration diapers. The one who didn’t get arrested for shoplifting diapers, and the one who could finally exhale.

A daughter of Vietnamese immigrants and a longtime nonprofit ops pro who once dreamed of being a documentary filmmaker, Lisa is driven by enduring compassion and a firm belief in community. “We are so interconnected,” she says of the Bay Area. “If we can strengthen our most vulnerable, we make the whole region stronger. It’s about lifting each other up, not just handing out help.”

In 1994, Rudy Corpuz Jr. walked out of prison and into a job at Balboa High School, where he was tasked with helping prevent student violence. A Filipino American raised in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood, Corpuz had firsthand experience with the kind of gang activity he was now being asked to address. Instead of dictating change, he asked the students what they needed to stay out of trouble. Their answers—basketball, flag football, talent shows—became the foundation for United Playaz, a youth violence prevention program that continues to grow three decades later.

United Playaz has since expanded across the city and beyond, with a clubhouse in SoMa that serves hundreds of youth each year. Many of its early participants now have children in the program. The group also runs a gun buyback initiative in partnership with the Mayor’s Office, which has collected over 3,000 firearms since 2014.

In 2023, Corpuz opened a SoMa cannabis dispensary through the Stiiizy franchise, with profits earmarked for gun buybacks and family support services. A longtime advocate for legalization, he sees this as another avenue to serve the same community he once harmed.

His transformation—from a self-described “destroyer” to a mentor and community leader—is deeply rooted in a commitment to restorative justice. The quote painted on his dispensary wall sums it up best: “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

Over six years, Alameda resident Chris Thoms completed an incredible challenge: running every street in Alameda County — all 16,218 of them across 20 cities. What began as a personal exploration of his new neighborhood turned into a county-wide mission after he discovered CityStrides, a tracking app that gamifies street completion and helped fuel his obsession.

Starting in February 2019, Thoms ran five to six days a week, averaging 6–10 miles on weekdays and longer runs on Sundays. He expanded his routes to Menlo Park and Kensington, ultimately completing 7,118 miles over 1,087 runs and more than 1,100 hours on foot. He wrapped up his journey with a 37-mile run on May 10, 2025, finishing on Bear Creek Drive in Livermore with his children by his side.

Along the way, he encountered a wide variety of terrain, from suburban streets to rural stretches with cows, dogs, peacocks, and pigs. His quest not only brought personal fulfillment but also served as a fundraiser for the Alameda County Community Food Bank. Thoms pledged 10 cents per street, personally matched 2-to-1, and ultimately helped raise over $5,000 to fight food insecurity in the region.

Currently ranked #25 globally on CityStrides, Thoms sees this project as part of a bigger athletic dream: to one day qualify for the Boston Marathon, inspired by a childhood memory watching runners race past Fenway Park.

Reflecting on his journey, he acknowledged the challenges but emphasized the reward: “During it might be hard, but you don’t regret it at the end.”

Image via Help a Mother Out on Facebook

Previously: Notable Humans: Record-Breaking Bay FC Women’s Soccer Star Empowers Zambian Youth

A San Francisco resident and marathon runner, Cal Calamia, is getting into it with the organizers of the New York City Marathon.

Calamia, who's a non-binary, trans-masculine runner living in San Francisco, won the non-binary race category at last year's famous New York City Marathon. But despite the win, Calamia discovered they were ineligible for the $5,000 prize money that accompanied the prestigious title, per KRON4.

The New York City Marathon became the first major marathon to offer prize money to non-binary runners in 2022. However, after competing and securing the first-place medal, Calamia never received the $5,000 prize money. They reached out to the New York Road Runners (NYRR), the marathon organizers, who said there was a rule that hadn't been followed: runners were supposed to compete in six NYRR races in the year leading up to the New York City Marathon. That stipulation had quietly posted on the marathon's website three months after their registration, according to KRON4.

Calamia said they never saw it, and couldn't have complied if they did. That "would obviously require me to live in NYC,” Calamia told KRON4. “I can't fly out there six times to go do races, so I was really surprised by this being added and really disappointed.”

Then, NYRR issued a statement in response: "Cal was not eligible for the NYRR member division, non-binary prize money as they did not complete the six fully scored races required. The prize money and eligibility requirements for the non-binary category were published on our website at the same time as all the other categories, six months before the race."

As Outsports reported, NYRR also got defensive and said that it has "supported Cal on multiple fronts for nearly a half a year in their fight for inclusion — including assisting them with acquiring pro-bono legal representation in their successful therapeutic use exemption battle. We are saddened by their inaccurate portrayal of this matter." (Calamia had to petition the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to make sure they could compete while on masculinizing hormone therapy, per Outsports.)

Calamia was reportedly unsatisfied with the response and wanted more accountability. ”They didn't say, 'hey, it was our mistake, we should have communicated better,'" Calamia reportedly recounted.

The $5,000 prize instead was awarded to the second-place runner in the non-binary category who fulfilled the six-race requirement.

The good news is, the SF Marathon is coming up over the summer, and it has a non-binary category as well. Hopefully all of the rules are posted well in advance.

Feature image of NYC marathon via Getty Images/Terraxplorer.

If you recall, at last year's Bay to Breakers, there had been reports of a runner collapsing from a heart attack at the finish line, and many at the scene said he had died. SF Examiner followed up on the story last week, and found that the runner, Ken Byk, had survived after losing his pulse for twenty minutes. He was diagnosed with coronary artery disease and underwent quadruple-bypass surgery a few days after the race.

Byk, who has been on a search for the two runners who helped save him, completed this year's race while wearing a t-shirt that read, “Byk is Back! The last time I did this, I died.” He's also hosting a large after-party this afternoon for 75 of his friends.

SF Examiner reports that they were able to locate one of the runners -- Tara Graham, 41, of Redding, a California Highway Patrol officer and an emergency room nurse who jumped the fence to get to Byk and began performing CPR. Byk is still looking for the anesthesiologist who performed the chest compressions that helped keep his heart going.

Congratulations, Byk!

So, the actual running part of Bay to Breakers generally gets forgotten about by the majority of hard-partying participants. But JFYI: Kenyan runner Sammy Kitwara set a new men's record in the race, running the fastest 12K ever run by a human being. And Ethiopian runner Teyba Erkesso just missed the women's record by a few seconds.