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.
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.
Source: Lia Thomas: UPenn to ban trans athletes after swimmer probe