Penn wipes trans swimmer records in deal with Trump

The University of Pennsylvania will bar transgender students from its women's sports teams and retroactively strip a trans female swimmer of her titles

University of Pennsylvania President J. Larry Jameson speaks at the 2025 commencement
Failing to resolve the Trump administration's Title IX investigation 'could have had significant and lasting implications' for the university, said UPenn President J. Larry Jameson
(Image credit: Charles Sykes / Invision / AP)

What happened

The University of Pennsylvania said Tuesday it will bar transgender students from its women's sports teams as part of a deal with the Trump administration. Penn also agreed to retroactively strip champion trans female swimmer Lia Thomas of her records and titles and to apologize to other swimmers "disadvantaged" by her participation on the women's team during the 2021-22 season.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.