Transgender UPenn Swimmer Lia Thomas Stripped Of Her Titles After University Agrees To Ban Trans Athletes

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Alessio AtriaJuly 3, 2025, 2:15 pmNews >

Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas will be stripped of her University of Pennsylvania titles after the institution agreed to ban transgender athletes.

Last year, Thomas became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA swimming championship after joining the UPenn women’s team following three seasons with the men’s team.

In June 2024, Thomas lost a legal battle to compete at last year’s Paris Olympics after a Swiss court upheld the sports governing body’s rules, which forbade her from competing in the women’s events.

On June 12, 2024, the Court of Arbitration for Sport denied her appeal to overturn World Aquatics’ policy prohibiting athletes who endured any part of male puberty from competing in the female category.

In its 24-page ruling, the court said that Thomas is “simply not entitled to engage with eligibility to compete in WA competitions.”

On July 1, the U.S. Department of Education revealed that UPenn, where Thomas won an NCAA title and three Ivy League titles, “entered into a Resolution Agreement to comply with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972,” according to a press release published by the DOE.

“This action follows the Department’s Office for Civil Rights’ (OCR’s) investigation that found UPenn violated Title IX by allowing a male to compete in female athletic programs and occupy female-only intimate facilities,” the release added, referring to the investigation into Penn’s compliance with Title IX for women’s athletics which took place five months ago.

UPenn signed OCR’s Resolution Agreement to resolve its Title IX violations, which means that the university needs to undertake certain “action items,” the press release noted.

UPenn will need to “restore to female athletes all individual UPenn Division I swimming records, titles, or similar recognitions which were misappropriated by male athletes allowed to compete in female categories.”

The university will also have to issue a public statement to the University community, stating that it will abide by Title IX.

The press release also notes that it must be made clear UPenn “will not allow males to compete in female athletic programs or occupy Penn Athletics female intimate facilities.”

“The statement will specify that UPenn will adopt biology-based definitions for the words ‘male’ and ‘female’ pursuant to Title IX and consistent with President [Donald Trump‘s] Executive Orders ‘Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism’ and ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,'” the release said. “UPenn will post the statement in a prominent location on its main website and on each of its websites for women’s athletics.

“UPenn will rescind any guidance which violated Title IX, remove or revise any internal and public-facing statements or documents that are inconsistent with Title IX, and notify all staff and women’s athletics of all such rescissions; and UPenn will send a personalized letter of apology to each impacted female swimmer,” it also stated.

The Trump Administration crowed about the agreement.

“Today’s resolution agreement with UPenn is yet another example of the Trump effect in action,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon declared. “Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, UPenn has agreed both to apologize for its past Title IX violations and to ensure that women’s sports are protected at the University for future generations of female athletes.

“Today is a great victory for women and girls not only at the University of Pennsylvania, but all across our nation. The Department commends UPenn for rectifying its past harms against women and girls, and we will continue to fight relentlessly to restore Title IX’s proper application and enforce it to the fullest extent of the law.”

On Tuesday, J. Larry Jameson, the president of UPenn, issued a statement, saying he was “pleased that [they] were able to reach a resolution through the standard OCR process for concluding Title IX investigations.

“Our commitment to ensuring a respectful and welcoming environment for all of our students is unwavering. At the same time, we must comply with federal requirements, including executive orders, and NCAA eligibility rules, so our teams and student-athletes may engage in competitive intercollegiate sports.”