Trans swimmer 'just laughing' at female rivals after dominating every event at national championships
A trans swimmer was 'just laughing at these women' after thoroughly dominating every event she entered at a national championships in Texas.
Her time differences in the five individual races in San Antonia last week were described as 'absolutely insane' and like something from a 'real-life South Park episode.'
Video posted online showed Ana Caldas crushing rivals in the 50-yard breast stroke by three seconds, with a time of 29.74.
In all Caldas, 47, came first in the five individual events she entered at the US Masters Swimming Spring National Championship in San Antonio last week.
The swimmer scooped the top prize in the women's 45-49 age category for the 50 and 100-yard breaststroke, the 50 and 100-yard freestyle, and the 100-yard individual medley.
The athlete was born Hugo Caldas and formerly competed in male college competitions under that name. She has also competed under the name Hannah.
A spokeswoman for the Independent Council on Women's Sports (ICONS) said the difference in time between Caldas and the other swimmers was 'absolutely insane,' adding to Reduxx that Caldas was 'just laughing at these women.'
ICONS penned a letter to the US Masters Swimming (USMS) board implying that by allowing Caldas to compete it had violated its own fair play policies. DailyMail.com has sought comment from Caldas.
The board stipulates that trans women must have had hormonal therapy, and have testosterone levels below 5 nmol/L in order to compete against biological females.
'Transparency in these matters is critical to maintaining the integrity of the competition and the trust of all USMS athletes,' the ICONS letter stated.
'There is no length of time during which testosterone suppression eliminates male advantage; therefore it should not serve as a guideline permitting men to compete in women's swimming.
'At a minimum, it is USMS's responsibility to enforce its current policy.'
ICONS told Reduxx that USMS did not respond to its email flagging concerns. DailyMail.com has contacted ICONS for confirmation.
Meanwhile, conservative political activist and former competitive swimmer Riley Gaines slammed Caldas' wins as 'a real-life episode' of the satirical comedy South Park.
'A man who goes by the name Ana swam five events at the U.S. Masters Swimming National Championship. He won them all,' Gaines fumed on X.
Gaines also recently slammed the NCAA for ignoring Donald Trump's executive order banning transgender athletes from competing in women's sports.
Previous life: The athlete was born Hugo Caldas and formerly competed in male college competitions under that name. She has also competed under the name Hannah
She accused the highest division of intercollegiate athletics of 'purposefully deceiving the public and Donald Trump' by allowing transgender Ithaca rower Juniper Gattone to compete.
'Wait a minute...I thought the NCAA had a new policy that was in full compliance with Trump's EO?' Gaines wrote on X.
'Nope. Men are still competing in women's NCAA sports. Meet Juniper (Tyler) Gattone. The NCAA purposefully deceived the public and Donald Trump.'
However, an Ithaca spokesperson said: 'It is the intent of Ithaca College to comply with all NCAA rules. Under those rules, the student-athlete in question has the ability to be on the roster and participate in practices and open-gender competition.
'This past weekend, there was a misunderstanding by the coaching staff about what constituted an official NCAA event, because there is no third varsity rowing event at NCAA championships.'
Gattone, who stands at 5-foot-10, is a sophomore at Ithaca and studying Environmental Science.
Last season, she rowed in the Novice 8+ boat and helped the Bombers capture their sixth consecutive Liberty League women's rowing crown. Their boat was also named LL Women's Rowing Novice Crew of the Year after winning the two-boat final by a massive 37 seconds.
Gattone's boat was also the top novice boat at the New York State Championships, defeating Army by two seconds.
Trump's executive order prompted the NCAA to change its participation policy on February 6, limiting competition in women's sports to athletes assigned female at birth only.
The change was effective immediately and applies to all athletes regardless of previous eligibility reviews.
The NCAA has some 1,100 member schools with more than 500,000 athletes, easily the largest governing body for college athletics in the U.S.
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The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- The Herald Scotland
CFP, March Madness don't need to expand. Why are leaders pushing it?
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But neither Baker nor one of the prominent conference commissioners like the SEC's Greg Sankey or the Big Ten's Tony Petitti have been able to articulate a clear and concise mission statement for what expansion of either tournament is supposed to accomplish. They just want to do it. Here's how thin the rationale is regarding March Madness: Speaking with reporters in Orlando, Baker cited the committee snubbing Missouri Valley Conference regular-season champion Indiana State in 2024 despite a 32-7 record, suggesting an expansion would get the NCAA tournament closer to including the "best" 68 teams. Of course, the NCAA tournament has always worked this way. Excellent mid-major teams that lose in their conference tournament often don't get in. And as the track record of the tournament clearly shows, the vast majority of bids in an expanded field would go to power conference teams with questionable records. The push to expand March Madness precedes Baker's tenure, which began in March 2023. In fact, you can trace the momentum back to March of 2022 when Texas A&M was left out despite a late-season surge to the championship game of the SEC tournament, converting Sankey into a public proponent of expansion. But the idea that tournament spots are being filled by automatic qualifiers from mid-major conferences with less chance to do damage in the tournament than Texas A&M's 2022 team, for instance, isn't new. It's part of the deal, and there's no real demand to move the cut line other than from those who are inconvenienced by it. In fact, one of the big obstacles to March Madness expansion - and the reason it didn't happen years ago - is that there's not a huge pot of television money out there for a few more games between mediocre basketball teams on Tuesday and Wednesday of tournament week. 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Rather than admit the truth - the SEC didn't have an amazing year in 2024 and the playing field nationally has been leveled to some extent by NIL and the transfer portal - they are arguing to shape the next CFP format based on a level of conference strength that certainly existed in the past but hasn't in the NIL/transfer portal era. One prominent athletics director, Florida's Scott Stricklin, questioned whether the football bracket should be chosen by committee. Another unnamed administrator went so far as to muse that the SEC and Big Ten should think about just holding their own playoff, according to Yahoo! Sports. If you take a step back and look at what's happening from a 30,000-foot view, it smacks of famed political scientist Francis Fukuyama's "The End of History," where he writes about how the triumph of Western liberalism and consumerism has unwittingly created this kind of regressive condition that shows up in so many facets of life and culture. "If men cannot struggle on behalf of a just cause because that just cause was victorious in an earlier generation," he wrote, "then they will struggle against the just cause. They will struggle for the sake of struggle. They will struggle, in other words, out of a certain boredom: for they cannot imagine living in a world without struggle." That kind of feels like what's going on here. Aside from a small adjustment in how it was seeded, nothing about the 12-team playoff seemed problematic. If anything, it was widely praised for delivering what the original expansion proponents wanted: Geographic diversity, representation for the four power conferences and the Group of Five, first-round playoff games in college venues and a lot of interesting games from the quarterfinals on. In other words, it worked. And there is no obvious reason - financial or otherwise - to have chucked it in the trash already while the four power conferences launch a war amongst themselves about how much access gets allocated to each conference, and by whom. The angst is especially confusing from the SEC, which just got a record 14 bids to the men's basketball tournament (including national champion Florida), has eight of the 16 national seeds for the baseball tournament and five of the eight teams in the Women's College World Series. They're doing just fine, and there is a long track record of being justly rewarded when their teams perform at the highest level. There's little doubt that will happen again in football regardless of which playoff system gets implemented. It just didn't happen last year because the SEC, for once, did not deserve it. But the Big Ten and the SEC are, as Fukuyama wrote, struggling for the sake of struggle. 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Reuters
3 days ago
- Reuters
Report: FGCU Athletics vacates 82 wins, 2 ASUN titles
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Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Daily Mail
Riley Gaines issues challenge to ex-ESPN host after he slammed 'MAGA stooge' over trans athlete fight
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