OAN Staff James Meyers
8:26 AM – Friday, February 7, 2025
Three former University of Pennsylvania Women’s swimmers are claiming they suffered emotional trauma due to having transgender swimmer Lia Thomas as a teammate.
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The three alumni Grace Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski and Ellen Holmquist filed the lawsuit on Tuesday, just a day before President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning men from playing in women’s sports.
The three girls allege that the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, the NCAA and the Ivy League Council of Presidents abused, harassed and violated federal laws after allowing Thomas to compete with them on their team, according to Fox News.
Additionally, the lawsuit also calls for the Ivy League to erase Thomas’ swimming records as a whole, in hopes of receiving a declaration that the transgender athlete was ineligible to compete.
“The UPenn administrators told the women that if anyone was struggling with accepting Thomas’ participation on the UPenn Women’s team, they should seek counseling and support from CAPS and the LBGTQ center,” the lawsuit alleges.
The three female swimmers also claimed in their suit that they were “repeatedly emotionally traumatized” because of Thomas being allowed to compete with them, which is a violation of Title IX.
The lawsuit also claimed that school officials forced their pro-trans ideology on the women during the time Thomas was on the team.
Administrators allegedly invited the three swimmers to a talk titled “Trans 101,” where the faculty believed that they had a problem with a “trans-identifying male” on their team, psychological problems and needed to see a counselor.
However, the three UPenn swimmers alleged that they were warned about speaking out against Thomas or else they would be labeled as a transphobe and could run into hardships for finding jobs after college.
The lawsuit also alleges that officials created an atmosphere of intimidation that forced young women to not recognize biology.
Thomas was not listed as a defendant in the filing.
Adding Thomas as a member to the women’s team jeopardized the swimmers’ opportunities, privacy, and safety, the suit claims.
After competing for the UPenn Men’s Swimming and Diving team from 2017 to 2020, Thomas was then introduced to the women’s team as their incoming teammate in 2019.
Thomas came in first in the 500-, 200- and 100-yard freestyle races, setting pool and Ivy League records.
Furthermore, Thomas shattered multiple women’s records at the Ivy League Championship meeting in 2022, which Harvard University hosted.
According to The National News Desk, the lawsuit asks the judge to declare Thomas was ineligible to compete in the women’s races and to remove the records.
The swimmers accused school administrators, the NCAA and the Ivy League of coordinating together to make sure Thomas was deemed eligible to compete on the women’s team for the 2021-2022 season.
Initially, the women were reportedly assured they wouldn’t be sharing a locker room with their new teammate, but then the University changed their policy to allow Thomas to change with them.
“When UPenn’s women’s swimmers returned to school in the fall of 2021 they were shocked to discover that Thomas was being allowed to use the women’s locker room at UPenn and would be allowed to use the women’s locker room at swim meets,” the lawsuit alleges.
“Margot [Kaczorowski] only learned that Thomas had been authorized by UPenn to use the women’s locker room when she walked in the women’s locker room to find Thomas in front of her changing his clothing,” the suit added.
Kaczorowski allegedly confronted her coach Mike Schnur after the locker room incident.
“I know it’s wrong but there’s nothing I can do,” Schnur reportedly told her, according to the outlet.
Meanwhile, Trump’s newly signed executive order this week now puts pressure on schools to comply with the order or risk losing federal funding.
“If you let men take over women’s sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated for violations of Title IX and risk your federal funding,” Trump said.
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