Three former University of Pennsylvania swimmers have filed a lawsuit against their alma mater, Harvard University, the Ivy League Council of Presidents, and the NCAA for allegedly violating Title IX by allowing transgender athlete Lia Thomas to compete in the 2022 Women's Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships.
UPenn alumni Grace Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski, and Ellen Holmquist filed the 87-page complaint on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts demanding that Thomas' records be expunged and that UPenn declare that Thomas was ineligible to compete on the women's swim team.
The three swimmers are seeking relief for "damages for pain and suffering, mental and emotional distress, suffering and anxiety, expenses costs, and other damages against the NCAA, Ivy League, Harvard, and UPenn due to their wrongful conduct," according to documents obtained by The National News Desk (TNND). Thomas, who was not named as a defendant, set multiple records at the Ivy League championships in February 2022 as a member of the UPenn women's team. Harvard was the host school for the event in 2022.
"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. Kaczorowski and Holmquist, who graduated in 2024, and Estabrook, a 2022 graduate, claimed they were "repeatedly emotionally traumatized because Thomas was allowed to compete with them, a violation of Title IX."
"The Ivy League's plan was to crown a man as a women's champion in one of the most iconic swimming venues in America as scores of national and international journalists described the scene as a landmark civil rights accomplishment to be venerated," the lawsuit reads. "To bring its vision to fruition, the Ivy League engaged in a season-long pressure campaign to keep Thomas eligible to compete and prevent women from speaking up for their equal rights."
"This lawsuit exposes the behind-the-scenes scheming that led to the attempt by Harvard University, UPenn, the Ivy League, and the NCAA to impose radical gender ideology on the American college sports landscape," said the plaintiff's attorney Bill Bock in a written statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian.
The lawsuit comes the same week President Donald Trump signed an executive order that bans transgender athletes from competing in girls and women's sports. The order, titled "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports," gives federal agencies wide latitude to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with the Trump administration's view which interprets "sex" as the gender someone was assigned at birth.
"With this executive order, the war on women's sports is over," Trump said at a signing ceremony in the East Room that included lawmakers and female athletes who had come out in support of a ban, including former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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