The Trump administration has announced that the University of Pennsylvania violated Title IX laws guaranteeing women equal opportunities by allowing Lia Thomas to compete.
The statement from the Trump administration did not name Thomas specifically, but was directed at Thomas competing on the Penn women’s team.
Thomas competed in 2022 for the women’s team and was the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I title, which is now in jeopardy.
The administration said Penn has 10 days to resolve the violations on its own or risk prosecution and wants Penn to issue a statement saying that the university will comply with Title IX, take any awards and records away from Thomas and apologize to each female swimmer “on behalf of the university for allowing her educational experience in athletics to be marred by sex discrimination.”
Thomas won the 500 freestyle NCAA title in 2022. If the award is taken away, Emma Weyant, who finished second for Virginia that year before transferring to Florida, could be elevated to champion.
The department said Penn violated Title IX by “denying women equal opportunities by permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities.”
Penn has repeatedly stated the school has always followed the NCAA and Ivy League policies regarding athletics, and Thomas was eligible to swim under those policies in 2022.
The NCAA changed its policy after Trump signed an executive order on Feb. 5 that was intended to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls and women’s sports. That ended its sport-by-sport practice in favor of a blanket policy that only allows athletes assigned female at birth to participate in women’s sports.
