US Masters Swimming under investigation after trans athlete takes five women's gold medals at Texas event
Multiple female competitors told Fox News Digital after the meet that they did not even know the trans athlete was a biological male.
Now, Paxton's office is taking action, as Texas has a law in place to prohibit trans athletes from competing in women's and girls' sports.
"The policy of U.S. Masters Swimming, which allows men to compete in women's events, is reprehensible and could violate Texas's consumer protection laws," Paxton said in an announcement. "Not only is this policy insulting to female athletes, but it also demonstrates deep contempt for women and may violate Texas law. I will fight to stop these unfair policies and never back down from defending the integrity of women's sports."
The trans swimmer, 47-year-old Ana Caldas, dominated all five races the athlete competed in, taking gold in the women's age 45-49 category in five races, including the 50- and 100-yard breaststroke, freestyle and the 100-yard individual medley.
Louisiana woman and long-time swimmer Wendy Enderle said she filed the request for an eligibility review after finding out that one of the competitors she has faced for years was transgender, via a news article stemming from last week's incident.
Now, Enderle is grateful to see Paxton's office taking action.
"I was very encouraged by the announcement that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is launching an investigation into U.S. Masters Swimming after allowing a transgender swimmer to unfairly compete against me and fellow female swimmers last month in San Antonio," Enderle told Fox News Digital.
Enderle is also hoping that the U.S. Department of Justice will take action as well. President Donald Trump has had an executive order in place since Feb. 5 that requires publicly funded institutions to ban trans athletes from women's and girls sports. USMS is not publicly-funded, however.
"I hope that U.S. Masters Swimming quickly adopts a more appropriate and fair policy in line with World Aquatics policy. I also would like to see U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi look into whether U.S. Masters Swimming violates Presidential Executive Order number 14201, Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports, dated February 5, 2025," Enderle added.
"I am not a legal expert, but it is my opinion that USMS violates this order as they are an athletic association and sport-specific governing body as referenced in the order. Thank you to the great state of Texas for standing up for women and girls!"
In June 2023, Texas passed the Save Women's Sports Act, which bans trans athletes from competing in girls and women's sports and only allows students to compete in the gender category listed on their birth certificate. The law only allows schools to recognize changes made to birth certificates that were made to correct a clerical error.
More legislation aimed at protecting females from trans inclusion in sports could soon be signed into law in Texas as well.
Earlier this month, the Texas Senate voted to pass the Texas Women's Privacy Act by a vote of 20-11. The bill ensures women are safe in their bathrooms, locker rooms, showers and domestic abuse shelters.
Meanwhile, USMS policy allows transgender swimmers to participate in the gender competition category in which they identify, and they may also be recognized for accomplishments, if certain conditions are met.
One of the two conditions requires that hormonal therapy appropriately be administered continuously and uninterrupted in a verifiable manner for no less than one year. The other condition is proof of testosterone serum levels measured during the last twelve months being below five nmol/L (144.25 ng/dL).
Trans swimmers who do not meet those requirements can still participate in the women's category, but their times are removed from the submitted results, and they are not eligible for official times, places, points, records, Top 10 or other forms of official recognition.
Fox News Digital has reached out to USMS on the pending investigation for comment.
Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fast Company
2 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Why baseball's biggest game in 70 years is happening at a racetrack
Major League Baseball is getting creative to bring new fans into the game. The league's experimentation will result in a lot of firsts this weekend, with a special game hosted at an iconic NASCAR track in Tennessee. The event, dubbed the MLB Speedway Classic, will mark the first MLB game ever played in the state and it's already smashed a league attendance record, topping 85,000 tickets sold. The previous record of 84,587 was set during a 1954 New York Yankees game at Cleveland Stadium. Hosted at a pop-up baseball diamond elaborately built into Bristol Motor Speedway, the game will showcase the Atlanta Braves taking on the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday night. Everything about the event is designed to maximize hype, from a nostalgic first pitch featuring two Hall of Famers to accompanying performances from Tim McGraw, Pitbull and Jake Owen and a flurry of NASCAR-related brand activations. The Bristol game isn't the MLB's first special high profile event designed to open the game to potential new fans. Last year, the league introduced a tribute to Black baseball history with the East-West Classic, which returned last month to Birmingham, Alabama's historic Rickwood Field, former home of Willie Mays and the Negro Leagues' Black Barons. The MLB has also rewarded its Japanese fans and tapped into Shohei Ohtani fever by kicking off its regular season with a pair of games between the Dodgers and the Cubs played in Tokyo. The series set records as the most-watched MLB games in Japan's history. Once the most popular American sport, baseball has slumped in recent decades. Baseball's fanbase has stagnated compared to the explosive growth of the NFL. Younger viewers are looking beyond traditional sports for entertainment. Well aware of those trends, the MLB is mixing things up to get the sport growing again – including playing on converted NASCAR tracks. The league is also testing out robot umpires, giving star players the anime treatment and even changing up the rules altogether. The MLB introduced a set of tweaks over the last few years designed to speed up games. Foremost among them was a shorter pitch timer, but the league also made bases bigger to encourage steal attempts and widened runners' lanes. The barrage of small changes was designed to make the famously plodding sport faster and more dynamic, and the experiment seems to be working: Last year, the average duration of an MLB game dropped down to two hours, 36 minutes – 28 minutes shorter than the 2022 average, making for the quickest games since 1985. 'You have to continue to capture the next generation, or it is an existential threat to the sport,' MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told the Los Angeles Times last year. 'As much as we love the thought that we are the national pastime, I think resting on your laurels is a really bad business strategy.'
Washington Post
3 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Massachusetts lawmakers propose pay raise for public defenders to end a legal crisis
BOSTON — Lawmakers in Massachusetts have reached a deal to give public defenders a pay raise in hopes of ending a legal crisis that led to cases being dropped and defendants who couldn't get lawyers being released from jail. But the deal was widely criticized by private attorneys who handle a bulk of cases for indigent clients, raising doubts as to whether the pay raise will be enough to end a work stoppage public defenders launched in May.
Bloomberg
3 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Trump Gives Mexico 90-Day Reprieve from Tariffs
President Donald Trump extended Mexico's current tariff rates for 90 days to allow more time for trade negotiations, again relenting after threatening to raise levies on a major trading partner. Bloomberg's Crayton Harrison reports. (Source: Bloomberg)
