UPenn strips male swimmer Lia (Will) Thomas of medals, apologizes to female swimmers

July 3, 2025

The University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) has announced that it will be stripping trans-identified swimmer Lia (Will) Thomas of his medals and will apologize to female swimmers forced to compete against him.

The Christian Post reports that the U.S. Department of Education announced on Tuesday that it had reached an agreement with UPenn after concluding that the university had violated Title IX policies by allowing Thomas, a biological male, to compete in women’s swimming competitions.

The university worked with the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights to resolve the Title IX violations with UPenn agreeing to “restore to female athletes all individual UPenn Division I swimming records, titles, or similar recognitions which were misappropriated by male athletes allowed to compete in female categories.”

UPenn has also announced that it will no longer allow males to compete in female athletic programs or use campus facilities reserved for women.

The university will also issue official apologies to female athletes who were harmed under its earlier policies.

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon celebrated the agreement as a “great victory for women and girls” and gave credit to President Trump for leading out on the issue.

McMahon stated: “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.”

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.”

According to the Christian Post, the Trump administration had opened an investigation into UPenn’s policies regarding men in women’s sports and concluded that the school had violated Title IX.

In March, the Trump administration had threatened to withhold $175 million in funding from UPenn in response to the university’s policy of allowing men to compete in women’s sports.

Photo: top, Credit: Kathryn Riley/Getty Images