UPenn Agrees To Strip Lia Thomas of Swimming Records & Apologizes To Female Athletes

John Simmons | July 2, 2025
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July 1 will go down as a monumental day in the history of the fight to protect women’s sports.

The University of Pennsylvania has agreed to terms with the Trump Administration to keep men out of women’s sports. On February 6, the Department of Education (DOE) filed a lawsuit against the Ivy League school for violating Title IX by allowing Lia Thomas to compete on the women’s swimming team during the 2021-22 season. UPenn could have lost up to $1 billion in federal funding had it not complied, but they made the right choice.

Part of the aftermath of this decision is that UPenn will take radical action to right the wrongs it caused by allowing Thomas on the swim team. The school will:

  • Restore all individual UPenn Division I swimming records or similar recognitions to female athletes
  • Send a personalized letter of apology to each impacted female swimmer.
  • Issue a public statement to its school community that it will comply with Title IX, specifying that UPenn will keep men from all female athletic spaces and teams
  • Adopt biology-based definitions for the words ‘male’ and ‘female’ pursuant to Title IX and consistent with President Trump’s Executive Orders "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism" and "Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” and post it in a prominent place on its school website
  • Notify all staff that it will remove any guidance, statements, or documents that are inconsistent with Title IX

 

I don’t know how you get any more of a total victory than that. 

"Today is a great victory for women and girls not only at the University of Pennsylvania, but all across our nation,”  DOE secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “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." 

Read: Imane Khelif Quotes Winston Churchill to Protest Being Treated as a Male

"While Penn’s policies during the 2021-2022 swim season were in accordance with NCAA eligibility rules at the time, we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules," the school said in a statement. "We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time."

Paula Scanlan, who was a teammate of Thomas’, said she was thrilled by the decision and thanked Trump for working to protect women’s sports.

“As a former UPenn swimmer who had to compete against and share a locker room with a male athlete, I am deeply grateful to the Trump Administration for refusing to back down on protecting women and girls and restoring our rightful accolades. I am also pleased that my alma mater has finally agreed to take not only the lawful path, but the honorable one,” Scanlan said.

Thomas has yet to comment publicly, but I can only imagine he doesn’t like that justice has won the day.

Riley Gaines, who swam for the University of Kentucky, tied with Thomas for fifth in the 200-yard freestyle in 2022 at the NCAA Championships. It was this even that inspired her to become one of - if not the - most vocal advocates for protecting women’s sports over the past three years. Naturally, she was thrilled by the decision as well.

In my brief time covering this issue, I have never seen a more satisfying outcome than this. May more victories like this come in the near future.

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Lia Thomas
NCAA Swimming
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Transgenders in Sports
women's sports
Riley Gaines