Trans swimmer Lia Thomas’ records to be erased as university makes major change to female sports

Transgender athlete Lia Thomas has been stripped of her records and medals after her university agreed to ban transgender women from its women’s sports teams.

Lia was the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship, after she bagged the women's 500-yard freestyle event in 2022. She has since graduated and no longer competes for the institution.

The move comes as part of US President Donald Trump’s ongoing crackdown on transgender women in sports.

The Republican leader, 79, has made his views clear by targeting transgender people with a series of executive orders since he returned to office back in January.

And now, in the latest development, a federal rights case involving the University of Pennsylvania has concluded with the US Education Department announcing the voluntary agreement to ban trans women from its sports teams on Tuesday (1 July).

The Department Of Education stated that the institution would apologise and give female athletes titles and records that were ‘misappropriated by male athletes’.

Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas has been stripped of her medals following a federal civil rights investigation (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The statement explains: “UPenn will restore to female athletes all individual UPenn Division I swimming records, titles, or similar recognitions which were misappropriated by male athletes allowed to compete in female categories.”

It adds that 'UPenn will adopt biology-based definitions for the words "male" and "female" pursuant to Title IX'.

On top of this, the university has also agreed to send a ‘personalised letter of apology to each impacted female swimmer’.

Back in March, the Ivy League University was one of many that Trump’s administration investigated for potential violations of Title IX.

For those not familiar, Title IX is a civil rights law issued in 1972 that bans any kind of sex-based discrimination in educational programmes that receive federal funding.

Then, in May, $175m of the institution’s federal funding was paused by Trump’s administration over its transgender athlete policy.

In the new statement, US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said: “Today’s resolution agreement with UPenn is yet another example of the Trump effect in action.

It comes amid Donald Trump's crackdown on transgender women in women's sports (Getty Images/Joe Raedle)

“Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, UPenn has agreed both to apologise for its past Title IX violations and to ensure that women’s sports are protected at the University for future generations of female athletes.

“Today is a great victory for women and girls not only at the University of Pennsylvania, but all across our nation.

“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.”

As per the BBC, UPenn defended its previous policies as being in line with National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) eligibility criteria at the time.

However, in a statement on their website they ‘acknowledged that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules’.

They added: "We recognise this and will apologise to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time.”