As part of the settlement in the federal civil rights case, the university agreed to apologize to female athletes “disadvantaged” by his participation on the women’s swimming team.
The U.S. Education Department and Penn announced the voluntary agreement of the high-profile case that focused on Thomas, who last competed for the Ivy League school in 2022, when he became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I title.
The department investigated Penn as part of the Trump administration's broader attempt to remove men from girls’ and women’s sports, concluding the university in Philadelphia had violated the rights of female athletes.
Under the agreement, Penn agreed to restore all individual Division I records and titles to female athletes who lost to Thomas and send a personalized apology letter to each of those swimmers, the Education Department said.
A statement from Penn President J. Larry Jameson said " While Penn’s policies during the 2021-2022 swim season were in accordance with NCAA eligibility rules at the time, 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.”
As part of the settlement, the university must also announce that it “will not allow males to compete in female athletic programs” and it must adopt “biology-based” definitions of male and female, the department said.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon called it a victory for women and girls.
“The Department commends UPenn for rectifying its past harms against women and girls, and we will continue to fight relentlessly to restore Title IX’s proper application and enforce it to the fullest extent of the law,” McMahon said in a statement.
Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines thanked President Donald Trump on social media and wrote of the settlement, “ Are pigs flying?" Gaines has said she started her activism against transgender athletes competing in women's sports after sharing a locker room with Thomas at the 2022 NCAA championships.
The Education Department opened its investigation in February and concluded in April that Penn had violated Title IX, a 1972 law forbidding sex discrimination in education. Such findings have almost always been resolved through voluntary agreements. If Penn had fought the finding, the department could have moved to refer the case to the Justice Department or pursued a separate process to cut the school’s federal funding.
In February, the Education Department asked the NCAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations, or NFSHSA, to restore titles, awards and records it says have been “misappropriated by biological males competing in female categories.”
