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Three female American Masters Swimming (USMS) athletes have spoken against the organization for asking for help with PR -Public Relations in the midst of a scandal involving a biological male trans -competitor swimming against women.
USMS, a competitive swimming membership organization with over 60,000 adult swimmers, sent an E email to his athletes on Tuesday to get help defending his public image after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched a lawsuit against the organization.
Paxton’s trial stems from an incident in San Antonio at the end of April when a trans athlete won five women’s events.
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“We Need your help to set the record just as part of our recently launched #swimsuit notlawsuits campaign, “the E email told the members.
The e -mail continued to ask that members “share correct information when you see or hear inaccurate statements. Help us give facts in response, whether on social media, by the pool or in your community. Let others know what is good about our organization.”
The e -mail also referred to “rumors” about the situation.
“This situation began with rumors of a member’s performance with our spring nationals in April in San Antonio. An external organization provoked online speculation about this swimmer’s eligibility, which led to protests from co -members and an investigation by the Texas Legal Attorney,” the E email added.
USMS revised its gender eligibility policy in June to limit the competitive recognition that biological men can achieve in women’s events, but it still allows them to compete with women.
Veteran women’s swimmer Wendy Enderle, who competed against the Trans athlete in April and formerly Pakinomist Digital told her that she was never made aware of the athlete’s biological sex, Pakinomist told Digital that she sees the e email as “an insult.”
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“I think the email from USMS is insulting to the women who unconsciously competed against men and to all members of USMS who support justice in women’s sports, and it has me off,” Enderle said.
“It also makes me feel that my concerns have been rejected and that the US Masters swimming is trying to sweep this under the blanket with a PR campaign, especially considering the fact that they have not yet responded to the request for eligibility three months ago.
“It makes me feel hurt and sad because I train very hard to be one of the best swimmers in the world in my age group, and like my hard work and results in the pool don’t matter to them. I’m very disappointed with USMS for issuing this tone-deaf email to its members.”
Enderle previously said she requested an eligibility review for the Trans -Aatpet, but has never received an answer.
Women’s swimmer Angie Griffin urged USMS for her policies that still allow men to compete in women’s events and not to respond to the request for reviewing eligibility.
“USMS asks members to support the organization publicly through a PR campaign while continuing to ignore the women who were directly affected,” Griffin said.
“Placing an athlete’s feelings over many of many for fair competition was a mistake and it still has not been recognized. We are not asking for much, just an answer. Those of us who took the time to submit formal protests deserve to be taken seriously. A simple answer would go far against rebuilding confidence.
“I appreciate that USMS has since revised its eligibility policy. It’s a step in the right direction. But real accountability means recognizing past damage – not rewriting the story or changing guilt. Until it happens and asks us to be the public voice defending the organization, feels premature and unreasonable.”
Fellow Women’s swimmer Cissy Cochran told Pakinomist Digital that she refuses to compete in USMS events after receiving the E email.
“USMS has now sent an E email asking all members to participate in a PR campaign to help clean up any misunderstandings,” Cochran said. “They again place the preliminary transgender policy at the forefront, which makes it look like they have cleaned up their action when we have actually not received any word about the request for eligibility we presented on the first week of May 2025. Perhaps a first step should have been recognized the wrong thing that took place in April.
“USMS who refuses to recognize or even respond to our formal complaints, talking about management. I refuse to attend USMS events and offer all the help of Texas and Florida lawyer in our fight to save women’s sports.”
A spokesman for USMS told Pakinomist Digital that the review process for the athlete is “running.”
“USSMS’s review process for eligibility for a swimmer is still ongoing. We are still navigating in our process in a fair and conscious way and soon expect to have a decision. The members who submitted protests will be the first to know when this process is completed,” the USMS spokesman said.
The spokesman also related to the complaints of the female swimmers.
“The messages we sent to our members had nothing to do with the review process for eligibility. We did not launch our swimsuit -ret case -campaign to correct misleading public statements about USMS and clarify what we are doing. Our mission is to strengthen adults to improve their lives through swimming,” the spokesman said.
Wendy Enderle swims at USMS Spring Championship 2018. (With permission from Wendy Enderle)
“We believe it is an appropriate way to limit resources spent on litigation so that it can be used for its intended purpose to serve our 60,000 members, and the answer from our members has so far been positive.”
Trans-swimmer, 47-year-old Ana Caldas, dominated all five races that the athlete competed in April, where he took gold at the age of women 45-49 in five races, including 50- and 100-yard breast streams, freestyle and 100-yard individual medley.
