Riley Gaines and her fellow swimmers have tasted a bit of justice this week. The University of Pennsylvania has agreed to resolve a Title IX investigation with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights after it has found that it unlawfully allowed a transgender woman to compete on the women’s swim team. This is now in violation of federal policy.
The world became aware of the issue after Lia Thomas, a transgender athlete, won the NCAA Division I women’s 500-yard freestyle championship in 2022. Thomas swam for Penn University and his win caused an uproar that has been well documented since that moment.
Riley Gaines was just one of the swimmers who was denied a proper placement because of him swimming with the female team and soon after there was a loud outcry for a fairer playing field in women's sports. This past election President Donald Trump put forward an executive order banning such participation.
Under the agreement, Penn University will Disavow previous policies and publicly apologize to female athletes “disadvantaged” by Thomas’s participation. Thomas will also be stripped of his titles and records, while the school will erase him from the record books and award the proper awards to the female competitors.
Penn also must be proactive and adopt “biology-based” definitions of sex under Title IX and affirm no males may join women’s sports or enter women-only facilities. The apologizing also extends to sending personalized letters of apology to any female athletes impacted and issuing a formal public commitment to Title IX compliance and current NCAA eligibility rules.
The NCAA has updated its own rules to limit eligibility in women’s sports to those assigned female at birth.
Penn President J. Larry Jameson issued a statement that said the university was following the NCAA and Ivy League policies at the time but now acknowledges that Thomas’s participation created unfair conditions for female athletes.