ORLANDO, Florida — Opportunities for transgender women to compete in female sports don’t end after high school, college or even international arenas such as the Olympics.
Transgender athletes are increasingly entering — and in some cases, dominating — the women’s field in masters’ sports, the classification for older athletes seeking to participate in organized competitions after their athletic primes.
Now Republicans are pushing back. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier called on U.S. Masters Swimming on Tuesday to ban male-born athletes from the women’s field, saying that the organization’s recent revisions fall short of complying with state law.
“We are calling on U.S. Masters Swimming, a Florida-based nonprofit, to immediately cease allowing any men to compete against women,” Mr. Uthmeier said in a statement. “We will always fight to protect women and girls from being subjected to men trying to compete in female sports — it’s our moral obligation to do so.”
He said his office will “take all necessary action” if U.S. Masters Swimming refuses. The organization did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment.
Based in Sarasota, U.S. Masters Swimming tightened its transgender-eligibility policy effective July 1 by requiring athletes to certify their sex at birth when registering, but said that members may change their competition category to reflect a different gender after starting a transition process.
Members may compete based on gender identity, but they will not be eligible for awards, rankings or other recognition unless they compete in the category that “aligns with their sex assigned at birth or they meet the eligibility requirements outlined below.”
Mr. Uthmeier called the revised policy “unacceptable.”
“They now say that they will reserve, it appears, some competitions for just women but not all, and they have some loopholes where if you go through a transition process you could become eligible again to compete in any one of these competitions,” he said at an Orlando press conference. “This is not acceptable. It does not fly with Florida law.”
A 2021 Florida law prohibits biological males from competing in female scholastic sports in high school and college, but it doesn’t say anything about private nonprofit athletic clubs such as masters’ sports.
Mr. Uthmeier argued that allowing transgender athletes to compete against women represents a “public nuisance” under Florida law, as well as a violation of state anti-discrimination and consumer-protection laws.
Florida and @AGJamesUthmeier are standing up for fairness in women’s sports — supporting justice for female swimmers in U.S. Masters Swimming.  https://t.co/CNGUkd12I2 pic.twitter.com/MuKY3TeoYo
— ICONS (@icons_women) July 15, 2025
Those applauding Mr. Uthmeier’s ultimatum included Kim Jones, co-founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports.
“There is a single question at stake here — it is ’do women and girls deserve access to fair sports?’ and the answer is a yes or no,” Ms. Jones said in a statement. “The state of Florida and Attorney General Uthmeier believes that answer is yes and, unequivocally, so do we. It is illegal for men to be competing with women, and it has been for over 50 years.”
Mr. Uthmeier’s letter comes with U.S. Masters Swimming already under investigation by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who said the organization may have violated state consumer protection laws by allowing a transgender swimmer to compete against women in April at the 2025 Spring Nationals Swim Meet in San Antonio.
That swimmer, identified in news reports as 47-year-old Ana Caldas, won gold medals in five out of five women’s races, according to Swimming World.
“Not only is this policy insulting to female athletes, but it also demonstrates deep contempt for women and may violate Texas law,” Mr. Paxton said in a May 19 statement. “I will fight to stop these unfair policies and never back down from defending the integrity of women’s sports.”
