UPenn bans trans athlete Lia Thomas and strips her swimming titles after deal with Trump administration

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: The Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia has agreed to ban trans­gen­der ath­letes from com­pet­ing in wom­en’s sports, the US Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion announced on Tues­day, July 1.

This move fur­ther allows UPenn to ban trans swim­mer Lia Thomas from com­pet­ing and strip her swim titles fol­low­ing a deal with the Trump admin­is­tra­tion, accord­ing to Newsweek.

UPenn bans Lia Thomas and strips her swim titles

The Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion also stat­ed that UPenn vio­lat­ed Title IX by allow­ing Lia Thomas to com­pete in wom­en’s events dur­ing the 2021–2022 sea­son, per the out­let.

More­over, the Uni­ver­si­ty will rein­state Divi­sion I swim­ming records and titles to ath­letes dis­placed by Thomas’s win and will also issue per­son­al­ized apol­o­gy let­ters to each of them as part of the res­o­lu­tion, the Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion stat­ed

The Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion added that UPenn must adopt “biol­o­gy-based” def­i­n­i­tions of male and female in ath­let­ics and pub­licly com­mit to bar­ring “males from com­pet­ing in female ath­let­ic pro­grams”.

Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia swim­mer Lia Thomas pos­es on the podi­um after win­ning the 100-yard freestyle dur­ing the 2022 Ivy League Wom­en’s Swim­ming and Div­ing Cham­pi­onships at Blod­gett Pool on Feb­ru­ary 19, 2022, in Cam­bridge, Mass­a­chu­setts (Kathryn Riley/Getty Images)

Mean­while, the agree­ment marks a cru­cial devel­op­ment in the Trump admin­is­tra­tion’s broad­er cam­paign to restrict trans­gen­der par­tic­i­pa­tion in wom­en’s sports.

More­over, Edu­ca­tion Sec­re­tary Lin­da McMa­hon called the out­come a “vic­to­ry for women and girls,” and sig­naled a more aggres­sive fed­er­al stance on enforc­ing Title IX based on bio­log­i­cal sex, per Newsweek.

The Edu­ca­tion Depart­ment start­ed its inves­ti­ga­tion in Feb­ru­ary 2025, and in April, it con­clud­ed that Pen­n’s deci­sion to allow Thomas to com­pete vio­lat­ed Title IX, the fed­er­al law that pro­hibits sex-based dis­crim­i­na­tion in edu­ca­tion, per the out­let.

On Tues­day, the Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion announced that UPenn agreed to ban trans­gen­der women from its wom­en’s sports teams as part of a vol­un­tary res­o­lu­tion with the depart­ment.

Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia swim­mer Lia Thomas smiles after win­ning the 100-yard freestyle dur­ing the 2022 Ivy League Wom­en’s Swim­ming and Div­ing Cham­pi­onships at Blod­gett Pool on Feb­ru­ary 19, 2022, in Cam­bridge, Mass­a­chu­setts (Kathryn Riley/Getty Images)

The deci­sion was applaud­ed by ath­letes who were impact­ed by the inclu­sion of trans ath­letes in women’s sports in recent years, accord­ing

Paula Scan­lan, a for­mer Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia swim­mer, said, “As a for­mer UPenn swim­mer who had to com­pete against and share a lock­er room with a male ath­lete, I am deeply grate­ful to the Trump Admin­is­tra­tion for refus­ing to back down on pro­tect­ing women and girls and restor­ing our right­ful acco­lades. I am also pleased that my alma mater has final­ly agreed to take not only the law­ful path, but the hon­or­able one.”

Sim­i­lar­ly, Riley Gaines, a for­mer Uni­ver­si­ty of Ken­tucky swim­mer, also added, “It is my hope that today demon­strates to edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions that they will no longer be allowed to tram­ple upon women’s civ­il rights, and renews hope in every female ath­lete that their country’s high­est lead­er­ship will not relent until they have the dig­ni­ty, safe­ty, and fair­ness they deserve.”

Riley Gaines attends the Folds Of Hon­or Ten­nessee Rock N’ Jock Celebri­ty Soft­ball Game at First Hori­zon Park on June 03, 2024 in Nashville, Ten­nessee (Ter­ry Wyatt/Getty Images)

She also wrote in a post on X, “UPenn has agreed to right its wrongs, restore records to the right­ful female ath­letes, and issue an apol­o­gy to the women impact­ed by the man they allowed to com­pete as a woman. Are pigs fly­ing? God bless @realDonaldTrump.”

Donald Trump’s attack on trans athletes

Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump tar­get­ed trans­gen­ders and non­bi­na­ry peo­ple with sev­er­al exec­u­tive orders since he returned to office for his sec­ond run as the pres­i­dent.

In Feb­ru­ary 2025, he signed an exec­u­tive order aimed at ban­ning trans­gen­der ath­letes from par­tic­i­pat­ing in girls’ and wom­en’s sports.

The order titled “Keep­ing Men Out of Wom­en’s Sports,” pro­vides fed­er­al agen­cies wide lat­i­tude to ensure enti­ties that receive fed­er­al fund­ing abide by Title IX in align­ment with the Trump admin­is­tra­tion’s view.

The pres­i­dent said dur­ing the sign­ing cer­e­mo­ny, “With this exec­u­tive order, the war on wom­en’s sports is over.”

Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump speaks to reporters on the South Lawn before board­ing Marine One and depart­ing the White House on July 01, 2025, in Wash­ing­ton, DC (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

In May 2025, Trump took an indi­rect jibe at AB Her­nan­dez, a 16-year-old track and field trans ath­lete from Cal­i­for­nia, in a fren­zied social media post, accord­ing to The Guardian.