UPenn finds 'shameful' loophole to still celebrate trans swimmer Lia Thomas

The University of Pennsylvania have made use of a loophole in order to celebrate Lia Thomas' records, despite seemingly bowing to Donald Trump's Department of Education (DOE) by agreeing to resolve alleged Title IX violations.

The DOE announced Tuesday that Penn is adopting strict definitions for male and female competitors under White House guidelines, adding that the school will ban trans athletes from women's competitions and erase Thomas from the school's record books.

Furthermore, swimmers impacted by Thomas' inclusion in women's NCAA competitions will receive a personal apology from Penn and be retroactively awarded records and titles.

However, despite wiping Thomas from the official record books, a special note appeared at the bottom of the web page for UPenn's women's swimming team. 

It read: 'NOTE: Competing under eligibility rules in effect at the time, Lia Thomas set program records in the 100, 200 and 500 freestyle during the 2021-22 season'.

On her individual profile, UPenn recognize that Thomas was 'part of Penn's 400 free relay that set a program record at the Ivy Championships'.

Thomas won a national title as a woman in the 500 free while tying for fifth in the 200 free at the 2022 NCAA Finals with Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who has since become the face of the movement to ban trans athletes from female sports. 

The NCAA previously allowed each sports to govern transgender inclusion, generally deferring to national governing bodies or International Olympic criteria. The fate of Thomas' NCAA is now in question.

The Ivy League institution's decision to wipe Thomas from the record books came after the Trump administration suspended $175 million in federal funding to Penn. 

'Penn remains committed to fostering a community that is welcoming, inclusive, and open to all students, faculty, and staff,' University of Pennsylvania president J. Larry Jameson said in a statement. 

'I share this commitment, just as I remain dedicated to preserving and advancing the University’s vital and enduring mission. 

'We have now brought to a close an investigation that, if unresolved, could have had significant and lasting implications for the University of Pennsylvania.'

Daily Mail has reached out to Thomas' spokesperson for comment. 

It was under that pervious NCAA structure that Thomas was allowed to compete despite originally swimming as a man before receiving hormone replace therapy. She returned as a woman in 2021 after meeting the NCAA's hormone requirements at the time.

Since then, the NCAA has changed its policy to conform with Trump's February 5 executive order aiming to ban transgender athletes from girls and women's sports. 

The NCAA changed its policy on February 6 after Trump signed an executive order on banning transgender athletes from girls' and women's sports.

Thomas was banned from competing in elite women's races ahead of the Olympics by The Court of Arbitration for Sport panel, which ruled that she was ineligible to challenge World Aquatics policy on trans athletes.

Thomas is, arguably, the most visible trans athlete in the debate over their presence in women's and girls' sports.

Growing up in Austin, Texas, Thomas began swimming at age 5 and only got better with the passing years.

At Westlake High School, which produced Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks Drew Brees and Nick Foles, Thomas earned a sixth-place finish among teenage boys at the Texas state championships.

Colleges quickly took notice.

Thomas ultimately followed her brother to Penn's swim team, where she began focusing on distance races – and her growing unease with her own body.

She'd already begun questioning her gender in high school, but those feelings only intensified at the Ivy League college in Philadelphia.

While competing under her birth name, Will, Thomas recorded the sixth-fastest national time in the men's 1,000-yard freestyle in 2017 (57.55 seconds), and had several other impressive performances in the 500-yard freestyle and 1,650-yard freestyle.

Thomas was even better the following year, finishing second at the Ivy League Championships in the men's 500 freestyle, 1,000 freestyle and 1,650 freestyle.

But although Thomas was still racing as a man in the spring 2019, she was already beginning to identify as a woman. In fact, Thomas came out to her family as transgender a year earlier, in the summer of 2018.

To Thomas, transitioning was the right answer. Not only was she comfortable with her new body, but her family, friends, teammates and coaches remained largely supportive of her decision.

She was still competing as a man in 2019-20, occasionally wearing a women's swimsuit, but her times suffered dramatically due to HRT treatment. Ultimately Thomas raced in only four of eight regular-season events that year, and outside of a win in the 500 freestyle against Villanova, was a non factor for the Quakers.

With her testosterone levels dropping, Thomas decided to move to the women's division, not just for herself, but for other trans athletes facing the same obstacles. 

There was, of course, some pushback.

Even LGBTQ+ icon Martina Navratilova took issue with the trans swimmer, reposting a DailyMail.com article on Twitter and writing: 'It is not fair for women to race against transgender Lia Thomas.'

In January of 2022, the NCAA announced it would defer to the rules of each sport's governing body when it came to trans athletes in women's sports. USA Swimming followed by updating its own criteria, requiring trans women to have minuscule testosterone levels for 36 months in order to compete in the women's division.

Regardless, Thomas remained eligible while posting the best 200-meter freestyle time in the country as the NCAA was beginning its own transition from the imperial to the metric system.

In one race, she beat the nearest competitor by 40 seconds.