Mick Hartley

🚨A male swimmer dominated the women's 45-49 category at the U.S. Masters Swimming National Championship last week, taking first place in multiple events.

Hugo "Ana" Caldas holds several women's titles and swimming records.https://t.co/5l99fCMBvD

— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) April 28, 2025

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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.

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, 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.

It's quite the success story:

Since returning to swimming in 2021, Caldas has broken a World Aquatics record in the mixed relay, setting a new record at the South American championships in October last year. In March of last year, he won a women’s world title in the Masters 45–49 100m freestyle at the World Aquatics Masters World Championships in Doha, Qatar, despite World Aquatics’ 2023 policy barring male participation in women’s elite competition unless male puberty was suppressed before the age of twelve.

Out of all his lifetime achievements, Caldas has broken seven different individual US Masters records and six relay records, of which he still holds one and two respectively. He holds 37 state records in Arizona and North Carolina, and taken 22 national championship titles, with 15 of those being in individual events.

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. He has ranked highly in a number of competitions, including taking women’s prize money and first place in Croatia, Argentina and Cyprus from 2014 to 2016. This is all despite the fact that Crossfit did not allow trans-identified men to officially compete in the sport until 2019. Although the sport has recently undone this policy, there is no screening required.

During the global COVID-19 lockdowns, Caldas became the 2021 world champion in the open category of the indoor rowing world championships, and still currently co-holds the world record in the women’s 500 meter category.

What a guy. Just shows how determination and hard work can make you a winner – plus a total lack of moral scruples, a contempt for women, and a complacent and useless sporting infrastructure.