Trans athlete Lia Thomas' former teammates file lawsuit one day before Trump signs new executive order on trans women
Topics: Transgender, LGBTQ, US News, Sport
Joe Yates
Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Icon Sportswire
Topics: Transgender, LGBTQ, US News, Sport
Three former Penn swimmers have filed a lawsuit calling for trans athelete Lia Thomas' swimming records to be scrubbed.
It comes just a day before President Donald Trump signed a new executive order banning transgender athletes from competing in women's sport.
Yesterday (February 5), the 78-year-old signed papers surrounded by female athletes who he invited to the White House to witness the event.
But just one day before he signed the new law, former teammates of trans athlete Lia Thomas filed a lawsuit against several organizations accusing them of defying federal laws by allowing the 25-year-old to compete against them and share a changing room.
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Swimmers Ellen Holmquist, Margot Kaczorowski, and Grace Estabrook - who all filed the suit - have named University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, the Ivy League Council of Presidents, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the suit. Thomas herself was not named as a defendant.
The trio are hopeful that their efforts will see the records set by fellow University of Pennsylvania graduate Thomas expunged.
Thomas, who was born in Austin, Texas, started hormone replacement therapy in 2019 and became the first openly transgender athlete to win a NCAA Division I national championship after her victory in the women's 500-yard freestyle event in 2022.
A new rule was later introduced by World Aquatics which banned anyone who had 'been through male puberty' from competing in women's races, which resulted in Thomas taking the organization to court and ultimately losing, meaning she could not compete in the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Now, Estabrook has spoken out about the new lawsuit, saying in a press release issued yesterday by the Independent Council on Women's Sports: "I never expected my Ivy League education to teach me that women must silently accept losing their opportunities and privacy.
"Women's sports and the leaders who oversee them should not prioritize men's feelings over fairness and integrity."
Thomas' former teammates claim the experience of sharing a team with her during the 2021/22 season has 'repeatedly emotionally traumatized' them, alleging their privacy was violated.
A class-action claim was also cited on behalf of all the 206 female athletes who took part in the Harvard hosted 2022 Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships.
The complaint claimed that female swimmers 'became captive and collateral damage to the Ivy League’s illegal social science experiment'.
A spokesperson for the NCAA said: "College sports are the premier stage for women’s sports in America, and while the NCAA does not comment on pending litigation, the Association and its members will continue to promote Title IX, make unprecedented investments in women’s sports and ensure fair competition in all NCAA championships."
Similarly, a spokesperson for Harvard University said: "We don’t comment on active litigation."
UNILAD has contacted the University of Pennsylvania and the Ivy League Council of Presidents for comment.
It comes as Trump signed his third transgender-focused order yesterday, expressing he wants transgender women to be banned from competing in female sports.
According to the order - which is titled 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports' - the Trump administration wants the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to 'change everything having to do with the Olympics and having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject' ahead of the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
The order empowers the Secretary of State’s Office to pressure the IOC to amend standards governing Olympic sporting events 'to promote fairness, safety and the best interests of female athletes by ensuring that eligibility for participation in women’s sporting events is determined according to sex and not gender identity or testosterone reduction'.
As well as this, the order wants the 'immediate reinforcement' against schools and athletic associations that deny women single-sex sports and single-sex changing rooms, Sky News reports.
The order also calls for the secretary of state and the Department of Homeland Security to 'review and adjust, as needed, policies permitting admission to the United States of males seeking to participate in women’s sports'.
There is no evidence male athletes have competed in women’s Olympics events.
Speaking before signing the controversial order, Trump said: "From now on, women's sports will be only for women.
"We've gotten the woke lunacy out of our military and now we're getting it out of women's sports."