The University of Pennsylvania has agreed to block transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports after a federal civil rights investigation stemming from swimmer Lia Thomas.
The US Department of Education announced the agreement, saying the Ivy League institution would apologise and restore to female athletes titles and records that were “misappropriated by male athletes”.
The university said it would update its records set during the 2021–22 season to “indicate who would now hold the records under current eligibility guidelines”, but it did not say whether Thomas’ records would be erased.
Thomas became the first trans athlete to win the highest US national college title in March 2022.
The deal marks the latest development in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on transgender athletes participating in sports. He signed an executive order days after coming into office that sought to prevent transgender women from competing in female categories of sports.
The university was among several that his administration opened investigations into over possible violations of Title IX, a 1972 civil rights law that bans sex-based discrimination in any education programme or activity that receives federal funding.
Two months later, the Trump administration paused $175m (£127m) in federal funding to the college over its transgender athlete policy.
Under Tuesday’s deal, the university must stick to “biology-based definitions” of male and female, in line with the president’s executive orders, said the education department.
US Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement: “Today’s resolution agreement with UPenn is yet another example of the Trump effect in action.
“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.”
The University of Pennsylvania said its previous policies were in line with National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) eligibility criteria at the time, but “we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules”.
“We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time,” said a statement on its website.
The change at the school comes years after Thomas competed at UPenn – first with the school’s men’s team for three seasons before starting hormone replacement therapy in spring 2019.
Competing on the women’s swim team in 2022, Thomas shattered school swim records, posting the fastest times of any female swimmer. She has since graduated and no longer competes for the university.
She also has noted the transgender population of college athletes is “very small”. The NCAA has said it amounted to about 10 athletes.
“The biggest misconception, I think, is the reason I transitioned,” Thomas told ABC and ESPN in 2022. “People will say, ‘Oh, she just transitioned so she would have an advantage, so she could win.’ I transitioned to be happy, to be true to myself.”
Last year, Thomas took legal action in a bid to compete again in elite women’s sports, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland rejected the case.
It came two years after governing body World Aquatics voted to ban transgender women from such events if they have gone through any part of the process of male puberty.
Human Rights Campaign, the largest political group lobbying for LGBT rights in the US, issued a statement criticising the deal.
“The American people deserve a White House that is laser focused on making sure every student thrives,” said spokesman Brandon Wolf.
“Instead, this administration is obsessed with making young people’s lives harder and scapegoating transgender people so they can attack independent institutions.”
