Three former University of Pennsylvania swimmers have initiated a legal action seeking to have the swimming records of transgender athlete Lia Thomas erased.
This development coincides with former President Donald Trump’s signing of a fresh executive order that prohibits transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports.
On February 5, Trump, 78, endorsed the order in the presence of female athletes he had invited to the White House for the occasion.
A day prior to this signing, former teammates of Lia Thomas filed a lawsuit against several organizations. They accused these entities of violating federal laws by allowing the 25-year-old to compete with them and use the same changing facilities.
The lawsuit was filed by Ellen Holmquist, Margot Kaczorowski, and Grace Estabrook. They have named the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, the Ivy League Council of Presidents, and the NCAA in their lawsuit. Lia Thomas herself is not listed as a defendant in the case.
The plaintiffs are hopeful that their legal action will result in the annulment of Thomas’s records, which were achieved while she was a student at the University of Pennsylvania.
Born in Austin, Texas, Thomas began hormone replacement therapy in 2019. She made history as the first openly transgender athlete to win a NCAA Division I national championship with her 2022 victory in the women’s 500-yard freestyle.
Subsequently, World Aquatics enforced a rule barring individuals who had ‘experienced male puberty’ from participating in women’s races. Thomas challenged this rule in court but was unsuccessful, preventing her from competing in the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Estabrook commented on the lawsuit in a press release from the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, stating: “I never expected my Ivy League education to teach me that women must silently accept losing their opportunities and privacy.” She further remarked, “Women’s sports and the leaders who oversee them should not prioritize men’s feelings over fairness and integrity.”
The former teammates allege that their experience of sharing a team with Thomas during the 2021/22 season left them ‘repeatedly emotionally traumatized,’ claiming their privacy was breached.
The lawsuit also includes a class-action claim representing all 206 female athletes who participated in the Harvard-hosted 2022 Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships.
The lawsuit argues that female swimmers were ‘held captive and collateral damage to the Ivy League’s illegal social science experiment.’
An NCAA spokesperson commented: “College sports are the premier stage for women’s sports in America, and while the NCAA does not comment on pending litigation, the Association and its members will continue to promote Title IX, make unprecedented investments in women’s sports and ensure fair competition in all NCAA championships.”
A spokesperson for Harvard University stated: “We don’t comment on active litigation.”
UNILAD has reached out to the University of Pennsylvania and the Ivy League Council of Presidents for their comments.
This legal action emerges as Trump has signed his third transgender-focused executive order, which seeks to prevent transgender women from participating in women’s sports.
As per the order, named ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,’ the Trump administration aims to encourage the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ‘change everything having to do with the Olympics and having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject’ in preparation for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
The order authorizes the Secretary of State’s Office to exert pressure on the IOC to modify Olympic event standards ‘to promote fairness, safety and the best interests of female athletes by ensuring that eligibility for participation in women’s sporting events is determined according to sex and not gender identity or testosterone reduction.’
Additionally, the order insists on ‘immediate reinforcement’ against schools and athletic associations that deny women access to single-sex sports and single-sex changing rooms, as reported by Sky News.
The order also instructs the secretary of state and the Department of Homeland Security to ‘review and adjust, as needed, policies permitting admission to the United States of males seeking to participate in women’s sports.’
There is no evidence of male athletes competing in women’s Olympic events.
Prior to signing the contentious order, Trump stated: “From now on, women’s sports will be only for women. We’ve gotten the woke lunacy out of our military and now we’re getting it out of women’s sports.”