Lia Thomas, the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA national swimming title in 2022, will have her records and medals removed after a new executive order by President Donald Trump. The order bans transgender women from competing in female sports categories and warns schools they could lose funding if they don’t comply.
The University of Pennsylvania, where Thomas competed, announced in July it would update its records and block transgender women from women’s sports going forward. The U.S. Department of Education found the school violated Title IX and required it to apologize to impacted female swimmers and remove Thomas’ records—except for her time in the 4x100m relay.
Thomas’ participation had sparked controversy, including claims from former athletes like Riley Gaines. Gaines alleged, “We did not give our consent… there’s a 6’4″ biological man dropping his pants and watching us undress,” referring to a shared locker room incident.
Although Thomas had begun hormone therapy, she had not undergone full surgery. Gaines has since become a vocal advocate for keeping women’s sports exclusive to cisgender athletes, saying, “This would’ve been considered sexual assault not long ago.”
UPenn acknowledged their actions followed NCAA rules at the time but admitted, “some student-athletes were disadvantaged.”