The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights ruled Monday that the University of Pennsylvania violated sex discrimination laws when it allowed a transgender woman to compete on its women’s swimming team.
The government did not specifically name Lia Thomas, who competed for Penn as a transgender woman during the 2021-22 season and won the NCAA title in the women’s 500 freestyle.
Penn was found to have “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.”
The Department of Education gave Penn 10 days to “voluntarily resolve these violations or risk a referral to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for enforcement proceedings.”
The Department of Education proposed a Resolution Agreement that calls on Penn to do three things, most notably erasing all records, titles, honors and awards won by Thomas during her year competing on the women’s team.
It also wants Penn to issue a statement saying that the university will comply with Title IX in all of its athletic programs, and has called on the school to send a letter to each female athlete whose “individual recognition is restored expressing an apology on behalf of the University for allowing her educational experience in athletics to be marred by sex discrimination.”
If Thomas’ NCAA title in the 500 free is stripped, Florida’s Emma Weyant, who was representing Virginia at the time, would be elevated to NCAA champion.
“Little girls who look up to Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan can find hope in today’s action – the Trump Administration will not allow male athletes to invade female private spaces or compete in female categories,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor.
“UPenn has a choice to make: do the right thing for its female students and come into full compliance with Title IX immediately or continue to advance an extremist political project that violates federal antidiscrimination law and puts UPenn’s federal funding at risk.”
In March, the Trump Administration suspended $175 million in federal funding for Penn over its decision to allow Thomas to compete in the 2021-22 season.
One month prior to that, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.
Does no one see that UPENN was not trying to be fearless and progressive? They saw a loophole to allow a stronger swimmer on the team that would secure the Ws, that’s it.
The swimmers were just pawns. They knew what they did was wrong and they didn’t care, they wanted all the benefits that come from winning. I don’t blame lia, she just wanted to swim. I DO blame the school and I DO think they should get their funding pulled as punishment. You can’t do whatever you want to win.
An amazing opportunity exists to to incentivize attendance at the 2026 Women’s NCAA Swimming competition and offer the first pay per view event of its type!
Imagine in place of one of the diving breaks, that a no holds barred wrestle mania event between Riley “Ladies first” Raines and Lia “Not a sir” Thomas takes place.
At $50 per subscription, with rampant marketing, this event could easily gross $10,000,000 plus various extreme right versus left sponsorships; we are looking at a $25,000,000 total gross NOT including T-shirt, hat and merchandize sales.
SwimSwam, Mainstream Media, FOX and USA Swimming (Greg and Yuri) – Get onboard and promote this exciting event!
The Vegas betting pool be huge. (Pun intended)
What is the SwimSwam record for the most commented article?
But when is he going to fix USA Swimming??
Riley Gaines (as good as a swimmer as we all know she is or was) is irrelevant in this forum. Did she even swim at trials?
We all bow to the elites here at swimswam- myself included. 5th at NCAA’s is fast. However I do think it’s funny when people that don’t follow swimming act like she would have been an olympic gold medalist if it weren’t for Lia Thomas, lol. We all know the truth. She’s the swimming mouth of the far right and she hates people that are LGBTQ. She can paint it any way she likes when she sits in the Capitol with that stupid smirk on her face.
Trans athletes- big issue in America 🙄
A rather vitriol filled comment about a brilliant, insightful and articulate “champion for women in sport” who, by her activism, inspires millions of women and men world wide.
Typical leftist hate.
i’m not a leftist
you don’t need to be an olympic star to not want to see a naked man in your locker room. Any voice should matter or any 12 year old little girl just wanting to swim has no chance.
Headline: Trump
Swimswam: Rapidly degenerates into Twitter feuding in the comment section
I can’t add anything profound to the below comments. But I will never understand how the cult doesn’t understand how his divide and distract tactics work. This is red meat to his base. Is it “fair” that Lia competed against biological women, no. Should Owen Lloyd have been DQ’ed in 2024 at ACC’s, debatable. Did Trump involve himself in that?
Men competing against women in women’s sports seems to be a bigger societal issue than bad official calls about sportsmanship
Or rapist felons as President
This is a Wendy’s sir
TDS Good luck in your Future
Looks like this Trump guy is really focusing on the important stuff.
Now excuse me while I cash out my 401k before it’s completely depleted and run down to Walmart and buy everything I can before their shelves are empty.