Friday 20 May 2022 05:13 PM Moment transgender skateboarder takes top position on winner's podium at 2021 ... trends now

Video shows transgender skateboarder Lillian Gallagher standing triumphantly atop the winner's podium at last year's Red Bull Cornerstone skating competition - a victory that saw the female runner-up slam the contest as unfair.

Footage taken from the 2021 final of the event - which sees top skaters from the Midwest compete at the region's best indoor skateparks - shows Gallagher gladly accepting her trophy at the top of the stage, as the second- and third-place winners stand on.  

The victory at the final in Lincoln, Nebraska, held in December, saw Gallagher awarded $5,000, after sealing wins in both the event's main competition and its 'Best Trick' contest.

Now, however, runner-up Taylor Silverman - who was awarded just over half that sum - says that award be hers.

" class="c8" scrolling="no"

'I am a female athlete,' Silverman, a 27-year-old professional skater from Kalamazoo, Michigan, wrote in a scathing post published to Instagram Tuesday, in which she slammed Red Bull for allowing a trans woman complete in an all-female competition.

'I have been skateboarding for eleven years and competing for several years. I have been in three different contests with trans women, two of which I placed second,' Silverman said

'At the last contest series I did for Redbull, I placed second.'

Silverman, who says she has been skateboarding for 11 years, proceeded to break down the winnings split amongst the three contestants whom had medaled, while appealing to Red Bull to rescind Gallagher's win.

'The trans competitor who won took $1000 dollars in qualifiers, $3000 in finals, and $1000 in best trick,' Silverman wrote. 'This totaled to $5000 of the prize money meant for the female athletes.'

She went on to reveal what she had made from competing in the contest. 

'I took $1000 in qualifiers and $1750 for second place, so $2750 in total.'

'The girl who took third received $750. 

The girl who deserved $1000 for best trick took nothing along with whoever would have placed third.' 

'I deserved to place first, be acknowledged for my win and get paid. I reached out to Red Bull and was ignored. I am sick of being bullied into silence,' Silverman then asserted in an Instagram post, in which she tagged right-wing firebrands Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens. 

The post also saw Silverman attached a screenshot of an email she sent to officials demanding action - asking them to 'do the right thing even if it's not the popular thing' - but said she was ignored. 

The post has sparked an array of reactions, many of them supportive.

Other users have asked Silverman to have more empathy towards transgender women or get better at skateboarding.

Silverman's claims come at a time of heightened national debate about whether transgender individuals should participate in the traditional women and men categories in sports. 

The most famous trans athlete - UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas - has smashed multiple records, with critics saying she has a clear biological advantage not afforded to her competitors who were born female.  

It is unclear in what city the contest took place. DailyMail.com has reached out to Silverman and Red Bull for comment. 

'My name is Taylor Silverman. I am a female athlete. I have been

read more from dailymail.....