Three Former UPenn Swimmers Sue Harvard for Allowing Transgender Athlete to Compete

One day before President Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from competing in women’s and girls’ sports, three former University of Pennsylvania swimmers filed a Title IX lawsuit in federal court against Harvard. The swimmers allege that Harvard violated Title IX by allowing Lia Thomas, a transgender athlete, to compete at the 2022 Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships.

The lawsuit also names the NCAA, University of Pennsylvania and the Ivy League as defendants. Grace Estabrook, Ellen Holmquist and Margot Kaczorowski are the three plaintiffs behind the lawsuit. The former swimmers were on the University of Pennsylvania team with Thomas between 2018 and 2024.

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According to The Harvard Crimson, “The suit claims Harvard is at fault for allowing Thomas to compete at the Ivy Championships, which it hosted on campus at Blodgett Pool. The plaintiffs also allege that Harvard violated Title IX by not providing a “unisex bathroom or separate bathroom for Thomas to use or for any other women to use who did not want to use the Women’s Locker room while Thomas was using it." 

The university has not officially commented on the active litigation.

Thomas was a member of the University of Pennsylvania swim team, and she graduated in 2022 after winning the Ivy League championship in the 500 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 200 freestyle and the 400 freestyle relay. Thomas is also the athlete at the center of another lawsuit filed by 16 student-athletes against the NCAA for its policy on transgender student-athletes.

The Harvard Crimson reported that “the suit argues that Thomas had not been suppressing her testosterone for 36 months before competition,” as is required by the NCAA guidelines on transgender athletes.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that, “the regulation prioritized the rights of trans women over those of people assigned female at birth.”

In a statement, the plaintiff’s attorney Bill Bock said, “the Ivy League believed that if America’s oldest and most storied educational institutions led the way, Americans would suppress common sense and submit to radical policies that steal young women’s cherished sports opportunities and obliterate biological reality. He continued, “This lawsuit exposes the behind the scenes scheming that led to the attempt by Harvard University, UPenn, the Ivy League and the NCAA, to impose radical gender ideology on the American college sports landscape.”