More than two years after Lia Thomas became the first male athlete to win an NCAA all-women’s swimming title, the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) has officially admitted its faults and will strip Thomas—born William Thomas—of those titles, return accolades to the rightful female athletes, and issue a public apology.
UPenn reached a resolution agreement with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights after a federal Title IX investigation concluded that UPenn violated the law. The department stated the university was found in violation of “permitting males to compete in women’s intercollegiate athletics and to occupy women-only intimate facilities.”
Now, UPenn will annul Thomas’s NCAA Division I swimming titles and individual records, restoring them to the highest-ranking biological female competitors who were displaced. The university will also send each of those women a personalized letter of apology acknowledging what happened.
[RELATED: Lia Thomas’s Records Removed Following Federal Title IX Investigation at UPenn]
This isn’t just a subtle policy change. It’s a public display that gives a warning when fairness is skewed. And this display didn’t come without pressure.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration froze $175 million in federal funding to UPenn after finding the school in violation of Title IX. The message was blunt: if a university chooses to subordinate women’s rights, it will lose taxpayer support. Only after UPenn agreed to scrap its gender identity policies, adopt biology-based definitions, and restore fairness in women’s sports did the administration release the funds. “We told them that institutions that violate federal civil rights law could lose their federal funding. We went a step further and froze over a hundred million dollars in federal grants to show just how seriously this Administration takes Title IX enforcement,” said Education Secretary Linda McMahon. “So UPenn came back to the table and asked us what they can do to make it right.”
In a statement circulating on social media, the university agreed to publicly declare that it will comply with Title IX by not allowing males to compete in female athletic programs or occupy UPenn Athletics female intimate facilities, and that it will adopt biology-based definitions of “male” and “female” in accordance with Trump administration executive orders. This marks the first time a major American university has formally apologized for allowing a male athlete to displace women in sports.
It’s a huge reversal for a school that once proudly stood by Thomas, even as female athletes, some of whom had trained for years for a chance at NCAA titles, were forced to bend the knee at the altar of gender ideology. Thomas, a biological male who had previously competed on the men’s team at UPenn, joined the women’s team in 2021 and made headlines by winning the 500-yard freestyle at the NCAA championships in 2022. Critics, including former teammates, raised concerns about the physical advantages Thomas retained and the discomfort of sharing locker rooms with a male athlete. They were ignored. Worse, they were labeled as bigots for speaking up.
Paula Scanlan, a former UPenn swimmer who shared a locker room with Lia Thomas and competed alongside her during the 2021–2022 season, called the university’s reversal “a momentous step toward repairing the past mistreatment of female athletes.” In an interview, she said, “I am deeply grateful to the Trump administration for standing firm in protecting women and girls and restoring our rightful accolades.
Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer who tied with Thomas in arguably the most high-profile race of the 2022 season, also said: “I’m over the moon with the news that we heard from Secretary McMahon yesterday… We have been pleading, demanding that those responsible take some form of accountability, and so that’s what we’re seeing here.” Gaines acknowledged that the action doesn’t erase past harms, but it does set a tone for the future. “Of course, it doesn’t necessarily undo the harm and the abuse … but it is the first step in taking, again, that responsibility and accountability, especially as it pertains to these apologies.”
[RELATED: UK Supreme Court Answers, ‘What Is a Woman?’—Colleges Should Pay Attention]
This is a huge win for women’s sports. It’s not just about one swimmer or one university; it’s about restoring integrity to the entire system. It sends a loud message to other colleges and athletic conferences that policies ignoring biological sex come with consequences.
For years, female athletes were forced to smile through unfair podiums, share locker rooms under protest, and watch as their records were wiped from history. Now, at least at UPenn, those women are finally being heard. They’re getting their recognition back. And this time, it comes with an apology.
Whether the NCAA will take similar steps remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: the days of pretending that fairness and inclusion are the same thing may finally be coming to an end.
Image: “The University of Pennsylvania, looking east from High Rise East” by Shreyans Bhansali on Flickr
” UPenn will annul Thomas’s NCAA Division I swimming titles and individual records”
I don’t see how they can do this — the relationship between UPenn and its students is contract law. Fully knowing Thomas’ anatomy, UPenn and the NCAA contracted with Thomas, promising to award him/her/it any title or award or record won when competing in the category which UPenn/NCAA authorized Thomas to swim in.
Thomas engaged in no deceit, and Thomas honored the contract. He thus is entitled to retain his awards and titles. And quite honestly, I hope he sues the bleep out of UPenn because I am sick and tired of academia changing the rules after the game has been played.
UPenn should never have let him played, but once they did, they were stuck with the results.