Controversial transgender swimmer banned from competition until 2030

A transgender swimmer who was on the heart of a nationwide controversy earlier this 12 months has been banned from World Aquatics till 2030 and stripped of all competitors outcomes from June 2022 to October 2024 after refusing to take a gender verification take a look at.

Ana Caldas was listed on the Aquatics Integrity Unit list of suspended persons this week for violating articles within the World Aquatics Code of Integrity regarding offering false info and defining the standards for males’s and ladies’s competitors classes.

World Aquatics modified its gender eligibility coverage in 2022, limiting the participation of transgender ladies within the ladies’s class to those that transitioned earlier than the age of 12 or earlier than reaching Tanner stage 2 of puberty.

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Common view in the course of the World Aquatics Males’s Water Polo World Cup Division 2 Qualifying Remaining Match Romania vs China at Schwimm- und Sprunghalle im Europa-Sportpark (SSE) on Might 7, 2023 in Berlin, Germany. (Maja Hitij/Getty Photographs)

Caldas gained nationwide consideration in Might after successful 5 gold medals at a US Masters Swimming occasion in San Antonio, Texas, sparking outrage from a few of Caldas’ opponents. Caldas dominated within the ladies’s 45-49 class in 5 races, together with the 50 and 100 meter breaststroke, the freestyle and the 100 meter particular person medley.

Louisiana girl and former swimmer Wendy Enderle, who competed in opposition to Caldas at that occasion and former occasions, stated she felt “betrayed” as a result of she was by no means knowledgeable of Caldas’ beginning gender.

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On Thursday, Enderle issued a press release to Fox Information Digital addressing World Aquatics’ determination to ban Caldas till 2030.

“I applaud World Aquatics for his or her determination to uphold equity and integrity in aggressive swimming. I really feel vindicated and validated, not just for myself, however for all of the women and girls who’re pressured to compete in our sports activities in opposition to males pretending to be ladies,” Enderle stated.

“To be on the rostrum in any place on the Masters World Championships is a giant deal! I sympathize with the ladies who have been denied that chance by Ana/Hannah/Hugo in 2024 when he stood on three podiums in Doha. I’m joyful that the ladies who misplaced that chance will get their rightful locations and honors.”

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Members of Crew United States bounce into the pool forward of the ladies’s water polo quarterfinal match between the USA and Japan on day 9 of the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore on the OCBC Aquatic Heart on July 19, 2025 in Singapore. (Quinn Rooney/Getty Photographs)

Texas Lawyer Common Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit in opposition to USMS in July over the San Antonio incident.

“I’m suing US Masters Swimming for partaking in unlawful practices by permitting males to compete in ladies’s competitions,” Paxton stated in a submit on X saying the lawsuit. “The group has stood again from radical gender warfare activists, and this lawsuit will maintain USMS accountable for its actions.”

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