Texas AG sues competitive swimming organization over trans athlete controversy

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Thursday he is suing U.S. Masters Swimming (USMS), a competitive swimming membership organization with over 60,000 adult swimmers. 

The lawsuit is a response to an event in San Antonio where a biological male trans athlete won five women’s gold medals. 

Multiple female competitors told Fox News Digital after the meet they did not know the athlete was a biological male. 

“I’m suing U.S. Masters Swimming for engaging in illegal practices by allowing men to compete in women’s competitions,” Paxton said in a post on X announcing the lawsuit. “The organization has cowered to radical activists pushing gender warfare, and this lawsuit will hold USMS accountable for its actions.”

Paxton’s statement alleges USMS engaged in “false, deceptive, and misleading practices by allowing men to compete in women’s events.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to USMS for comment.

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 certificates. The law only allows schools to recognize changes made to birth certificates that were made to correct a clerical error.

Paxton previously launched an investigation into USMS after the conrtoversial April incident.

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.

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Louisiana woman and long-time swimmer Wendy Enderle said she filed a request for an eligibility review after finding out that Caldas was transgender through a news article about the April incident.

“I feel betrayed. Plain and simple,” Enderle previously told Fox News Digital. 

Enderle said she did not introduce herself to Caldas until a USMS meet in Little Rock, Arkansas, in January. Upon meeting Caldas, Enderle noticed the athlete’s muscles and height but still assumed Caldas was a female. 

“I knew there was something, but I didn’t know what, I had no idea she was a trans female up until this past Wednesday after the meet,” Enderle said. “I was shocked. … It makes me concerned, it makes me mad.” 

Fellow USMS women’s swimmer Angie Griffin also swam with Caldas in April without knowledge of Caldas’ birth gender.

The shock of learning the news about Caldas prompted Griffin to write a formal letter of complaint to USMS. The letter also asked the organization to “re-evaluate” the recent Spring National Championship and overhaul its gender eligibility policy. 

Griffin competed against Caldas in three races in San Antonio and finished behind the trans athlete in the 50-yard breaststroke and 100-yard individual medley.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about how the integrity of individual competition had been compromised. Why doesn’t USMS follow the same competitive standards as the rest of the world and NCAA? Why are athletes asked to accept less transparency and fairness?” Griffin previously told Fox News Digital 

“I paid my entry fees, airfare and hotel, trusting I’d be competing in a women’s division defined by biological sex. I deserved to know the truth before stepping onto the blocks.”

The U.S. Masters Swimming Board of Directors and Rules Committee updated its participation guidelines last month.

“USMS allows members to register for the competition category that aligns with their gender identity and/or expression and to participate in sanctioned events in that category,” the new guidelines state. 

“However, swimmers will not be included in Recognition Programs (as defined above) unless they are swimming in the competition category that aligns with their sex assigned at birth or they meet the eligibility requirements.”

To be eligible for the U.S. Masters Swimming’s women’s recognition programs, the policy states, “Members of the Female Sex are eligible for Recognition Programs in the women’s category, regardless of their gender identity or gender expression.

“Members with 46 XY DSD whose gender identity or gender expression is female are eligible for Recognition Programs in the women’s category if they can establish to USMS’s comfortable satisfaction that their sex assigned at birth is female.”

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