How long are we going to keep seeing these outrageous stories? You know the ones I mean; the mediocre male athletes who suddenly decide they "identify" as a female, and are suddenly breaking world records. President Trump is making efforts to put a halt to this lunacy, including revising the guidelines around Title IX, but it's still happening.
The latest is one Hugo Caldas, who now calls himself Ana Caldas, and as seems so often to be the case, he's taking championships to which he isn't entitled.
This is brutally and cruelly unfair.
A trans-identified male quietly dominated his age category at a national swimming championship held in Texas over the weekend, prompting concern from women’s rights groups. Ana Caldas, formerly known as Hugo Caldas and Hannah Caldas, took home multiple titles at the event.
The U.S. Masters Swimming Spring National Championship took place in San Antonio, Texas, from Thursday to Sunday. Competing in the women’s 45-49 age category for 02 Performance Aquatics was Ana Caldas, formerly known as Hugo.
In any sane and just world, this dude would still be known as Hugo. Of course, he's an adult and can change his name if he wants to, but he shouldn't be allowed on women's sports teams. Why? Because he's not a woman. He has an X and a Y chromosome; he comes with the advantages of speed, strength, pulmonary and cardiac capacity, and stamina that go with it. These are facts. And the results of the events speak eloquently to these facts:
Caldas entered five individual events during the meet: the 50 and 100 yard breaststroke, the 50 and 100 yard freestyle, and the 100 yard individual medley. Caldas came first in every event he entered, with beating out his female competitors by three seconds in the 100 yard freestyle and four seconds in the 50 and 100 yard breaststroke races.
A spokeswoman for the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS) told Reduxx that Caldas’ latter gains were “absolutely insane” for short sprint races. “He’s just laughing at these women,” she added.
Here, take a look at this guy:
This guy is competing in women's swimming, and winning championships. Look at him. pic.twitter.com/P3cTxf1ZW7
— Ward Clark (@TheGreatLander) April 29, 2025
This isn't some pale, pasty androgyn that one would look at with some confusion. This is a big, barrel-chested, muscular Brodude who is calling himself a woman and taking titles he's not entitled to.
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Hugo Caldas has been doing this for years.
Prior to identifying as a woman, Caldas participated on the Ohio Splash Team, a swim club for homosexual males.
A couple of other examples:
From 2009 to 2012, Caldas competed in USMS women’s competitions, managing to collect 7 all-American honors during that time. In 2011, he was ranked by FINA, the World Aquatics governing body, as the fastest female masters swimmer in the world in the over 30 category for both the 50 meter and 100 meter freestyle.
And:
In Crossfit competitions, which he competed in from 2012 to 2021, Caldas was ranked as the number one woman in his age category in his home country of Portugal from 2018 until his retirement from the sport.
Hugo Caldas is. Not. A. Woman.
If there was ever any example of why this practice is hideously unfair to women athletes, this is it. Hugo Caldas is a big, beefy dude. A blind and deaf person could identify Hugo Caldas as a man. He has the build of a weightlifter - a male weightlifter. And, if you'll allow me to be brutally candid, judging from the photos, Hugo has not had what they euphemistically call "bottom surgery."
Look, some people legitimately suffer from gender dysphoria, a psychological disorder we have known about for decades. Historically, those people have been treated with therapy, normally with pretty good results, and most of them go on to lead normal lives. This is especially true when children and teens are the patients.
Hugo Caldas is not one of these people. He appears to have gotten in on the ground floor of one of the greatest scams in the history of sports: Can't make it on the men's team, so claim you identify as a woman, and suddenly you're winning championships and breaking records.
At some point, the governing bodies of these sports are going to have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the wide, wide world of reality, and sadly, the best way to make this happen is for the women-the-actual, real, XX-chromosome-bearing women in these events to walk away. Refuse to participate in the farce. Refuse to compete against a man.
It's sad, but it's the fastest way to put a stop to this.
