White House Freezes $175 million to Penn Due to Lia Thomas Participation in 2022

The White House announced today that the Trump Administration is freezing approximately $175 million of federal funding to Penn over the participation of Lia Thomas in the 2022 NCAA season.

BREAKING: The Trump Administration has “paused $175 million in federal funding from the University of Pennsylvania” over its policies forcing women to compete with men in sports.

Promises made, promises kept. pic.twitter.com/o4yiiqtH9d

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 19, 2025

The post stated that the funding freeze was due to “forcing women to compete with men in sports.” This comes after Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from women’s sports last month.

In 2022, Lia Thomas began receiving national backlash as a result of her participation as a member of the women’s swimming and diving team at Penn, after competing for three years as a member of the men’s team. Thomas went on to earn three A-finals swims at the NCAA Championships, finishing 8th in the 100 free, 5th in the 200 free, and 1st in the 500 free.

At the time, Thomas was in compliance with the NCAA regulations on transgender competition, and Penn was following their guidelines. Penn spokesperson Ron Ozio addressed this funding freeze with ESPN, stating that the school has not received any notification of the action.

Ozio went on to state that “Penn has always followed NCAA and Ivy League policies regarding student participation on athletic teams. We have been in the past, and remain today, in full compliance with the regulations that apply to not only Penn, but all of our NCAA and Ivy League peer institutions.”

Penn also became the subject of an investigation opened by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights last month due to their potential “violation” by allowing Thomas’ participation. This investigation also includes San Jose State, and their transgender volleyball player.

The funding freeze is reportedly unrelated to the DOE investigation, and the funding was coming from the Defense Department and the Department of Health and Human Services.

In December, NCAA president Charlie Baker said that there were less than 10 transgender student athletes competing in the NCAA. It is unclear if any other schools that have facilitated transgender competition have been hit by the funding freeze.

Also today, the U.S. Department of Education found that Maine was in violation of the title IX laws, and they reportedly have 10 days to make changes or the case will be sent to the Department of Justice.

This comes after the Governor of Maine, Janet Mills, has refused to change their policies regarding transgender competition in light of the Executive Order, and Mills told President Trump that she would see him in court.

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Swimmer Ace
1 hour ago

I’m glad we’re done pretending with this nonsense. Protect women and girls. Finally, common sense prevails.

JH1
Reply to  Swimmer Ace
1 hour ago

Common sense would be realizing this happened 3 years ago and they have complied since. Punishing a university for following guidelines years after the fact is insane.

Steve Nolan
Reply to  JH1
1 minute ago

Or punishing them for this at all is insane.

When’s Penn State getting a retroactive punishment for Sandusky?

This Guy
Reply to  Swimmer Ace
29 minutes ago

People have much less of an issue with changing policy rather than punishing people/institutions for things done in the past under different policies

That’s the whole issue here, not the actual policy change itself

Truth Teller
2 hours ago

Is it possible to think Thomas should not have swum with women and this reduction in funding feels wrong?

Last edited 2 hours ago by Truth Teller
KeithM
4 hours ago

Petty & childish tbh.

Swimpop
Reply to  KeithM
3 hours ago

Yep, man child is having another late night fit.

Jay Ryan
7 hours ago

WTF Dictatorship?

Hmm
7 hours ago

Swimming is a big sport now 😎

swimswum
7 hours ago

Opinions aside, why should a school be penalized for action that took place before a law was created?

UCSwim
Reply to  swimswum
4 hours ago

And not even a law.

Tani
7 hours ago

Oh dear, oh dear!!!

Spieker Pool Lap Swimmer
7 hours ago

Is this about Lia’s past participation or Penn’s current policies?