Analysis by WorldTribune Staff, July 2, 2025 Real World News
If you look up Will Thomas in the record books of the University of Pennsylvania’s men’s swimming team, you won’t find much.
When Will identified as Lia and swam on the women’s team, however, the record books were re-written big-time. As the male swimmer was dominating his female competition, he turned in times that likely never would have been broken by the women who swam the same events for UPenn in the future.
Lia ThomasWell, until Tuesday, that is.
The Ivy League school said it will no longer allow males to compete in women’s sports, will strip Thomas of his women’s swimming titles, will erase all of Lia Thomas’s women’s swimming records, and will issue formal apologies to every biological female competitor who lost out to Thomas.
What happened?
UPenn bowed to pressure from Uncle Sam.
An investigation by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) found UPenn violated Title IX by “allowing a male to compete in female athletic programs and occupy female-only intimate facilities.”
“Today’s resolution agreement with UPenn is yet another example of the Trump effect in action. Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, UPenn has agreed both to apologize for its past Title IX violations and to ensure that women’s sports are protected at the University for future generations of female athletes,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.
The resolution agreement signed by the university will require it to undertake a host of additional actions, including adopting “biology-based definitions for ‘male’ and ‘female’ under Title IX” and issuing a public statement that it will no longer allow biological men to compete in female athletic programs or occupy women-only locker rooms.
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.”
Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer who competed against Lia Thomas and has been outspoken on the issue, said: “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.”
Thomas last competed for the UPenn women’s swimming team in 2022 when he became the first biological male athlete to win an NCAA Division I women’s championship.
“Today is a great victory for women and girls not only at the University of Pennsylvania, but all across our nation,” McMahon added. “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.”
Say it ain’t so Lia Thomas, says Uncle Sam added by Editor Two on July 2, 2025
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