Thomas finishes a race against Brown on Feb. 13, 2021.
Credit: Kylie CooperThe United States Department of Education sent a letter to NCAA President Charlie Baker and National Federation of State High School Associations President Bob Lombardi urging them to reallocate titles and awards earned by transgender athletes on Tuesday.
The letter comes in the wake of 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump’s “Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order and the NCAA’s ensuing policy change that barred transgender women from women’s sports.
“The NCAA and NFHS must not only prospectively protect female categories in sports, but also restore to female athletes all records, titles, awards, and recognitions wrongfully credited to male athletes.” Candice Jackson, deputy counsel in the DOE’s Office of General Counsel, wrote in a letter addressed to the presidents of the NCAA and NFSHSA.
Baker previously stated that the NCAA intends to “take necessary steps to align NCAA policy” in accordance with Trump’s previous executive order. The DOE urges the reallocation of accolades won by transgender athletes as a “corollary.”
2022 College graduate and transgender woman Lia Thomas represented Penn women’s swimming and diving during the 2021-22 swimming season and collected multiple accolades at the conference and national level, including an NCAA championship and three individual Ivy League titles. Thomas also has numerous Ivy League and program records that are all at risk of being eliminated from the record books.
“Please. Start with the record board at the University of Pennsylvania because every freestyle record is currently held by a MAN,” 2022 College graduate Paula Scanlan — Thomas’ former teammate and a women’s sports activist — wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Thomas currently holds three of the six Penn women’s swimming and diving individual freestyle records.
The DOE also recently announced an investigation into Penn and other institutions for allegedly violating Title IX for allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports. The day before the investigation was announced, three former swimmers filed a lawsuit also alleging Title IX violations by Penn, Harvard University, the Ivy League, and the NCAA for allowing Thomas to compete in the 2022 Ivy League Championships.
According to Outsports, an inclusivity based sports news site, there are only 44 active transgender athletes in collegiate sports — with only three of those athletes holding NCAA titles, including Thomas’ 2022 championship victory. In December 2023, Baker told a U.S. Senate committee that he was aware of fewer than 10 transgender athletes currently competing.
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