Three former University of Pennsylvania swimmers have sued to expunge the women’s swimming records set by Lia Thomas, arguing that the male-born athlete who identifies as female was allowed to compete in violation of Title IX.
The three ex-athletes — Grace Estabrook, Ellen Holmquist and Margot Kaczorowski — filed a lawsuit accusing the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, the Ivy League Council of Presidents and the NCAA of violating federal law by allowing Thomas to swim against women and share their locker room facilities during the 2021-22 season.
“I never expected my Ivy League education to teach me that women must silently accept losing their opportunities and privacy,” Estabrook said in a press release Wednesday from the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, which is backing the lawsuit. “Women’s sports and the leaders who oversee them should not prioritize men’s feelings over fairness and integrity.”
The complaint also seeks to create a class-action claim on behalf of the 206 female athletes who participated in the 2022 Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships, which was hosted by Harvard.
“Women swimmers throughout the Ivy League were left shattered by the disregard of their rights and opportunities in order to create new rights and opportunities in women’s sports for a man with biological advantages they could not hope to match,” said the 87-page complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts.
The filing comes as the third ICONS-supported lawsuit challenging male-born athletes in women’s sports. Last year, the group backed lawsuits against the NCAA and the Mountain West Conference filed by former and current female athletes.
Thomas, who was not named as a defendant, smashed multiple records at the Ivy League championships in February 2022 as a member of the Penn women’s team.
A month later, Thomas became the first male-born athlete to capture a Division I women’s title by winning the 500-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA women’s championships.
The lawsuit accused the Ivy League Council and universities of participating in a “conspiracy” to normalize male-to-female transgender athletes in women’s sports that included a “pressure campaign” aimed at silencing objections from female athletes.
“The Ivy League’s belief was that crowning a man an Ivy League champion in women’s swimming would normalize cross-sex competition in previously sex-separated sports categories and render inevitable nationwide acceptance of a new set of gender norms for college sports,” said the motion.
University of Pennsylvania swimmers were warned a year ahead of time that men’s swimmer Will Thomas would take a gap year to undergo testosterone suppression treatment, then return to compete on the women’s team.
Female swimmers were initially told that Thomas would not use the women’s locker room. After Thomas returned, however, Kaczorowski said she entered the women’s facility to find Thomas changing clothes.
“Through tears, Margot told her coach that Thomas’ use of the locker room was not right,” the filing said. “In response, Schnur claimed that he knew it was wrong but there was nothing he could do.”
As publicity mounted, administrators held a meeting in December 2021 warning female swimmers that if they spoke out against Thomas’ participation, their reputations would be “tainted with transphobia for the rest of their lives and they would probably never be able to get a job.”
At the Ivy League championships, Harvard offered no separate changing space for Thomas or women uncomfortable with disrobing in front of an adult male.
“Instead, Harvard participated in the conspiracy with the NCAA, Ivy League, and UPenn to allow Thomas to participate in the Ivy League Championships and use the women’s locker rooms,” the lawsuit said.
The NCAA reacted to the brouhaha in January 2022 by abandoning its 2010 transgender eligibility rule and putting the national sports authorities in charge of the criteria for their individual fields, but soon ran into pushback from the Ivy League Council.
The sport-by-sport approach would have rendered Thomas ineligible to compete at the NCAA finals under USA Swimming rules. A month later, the NCAA backed down, saying the change would not apply to athletes deemed eligible under the previous policy.
Both Estabrook and Kaczorowski competed at the Ivy League finals, but Holmquist missed out by one slot, meaning that she would have qualified but for Thomas.
The lawsuit asked the court to declare the plaintiffs in violation of Title IX; vacate Thomas’ Ivy League and NCAA records, and provide damages “for pain and suffering, mental and emotional distress, suffering and anxiety.”
Representing the female swimmers is William Bock, former general counsel of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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