Content warning: This article contains instances of misgendering that may be disturbing and/or triggering for some readers.

The controversy surrounding the inclusion of transgender women in women’s sports has been a polarizing topic for years — one that was brought to the national spotlight after 2022 College graduate Lia Thomas competed on the Penn women’s swimming and diving team at the NCAA level during the 2021-22 season. 

On Feb. 4, three former Penn swimmers filed a lawsuit against Penn, Harvard University, the Ivy League, and the NCAA for allegedly violating Title IX by allowing Thomas to compete in the 2022 Women’s Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships. The case alleges that the four defendants violated Title IX regulations by allowing a “trans-identifying male swimmer” to compete in the 2022 Ivy League Championships.

The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke exclusively with the three swimmers who filed the suit — 2024 College graduate Margot Kaczorowski, 2024 College graduate Ellen Holmquist, and 2022 College graduate Grace Estabrook — about their backgrounds and the process behind the suit. 

Time at Penn

Kaczorowski told the DP that she started swimming competitively at four years old, specializing in the freestyle and butterfly on a powerhouse club team in New Jersey. After reaching a goal that many only dream of — competing at the Division I level at Penn — she wrote in the lawsuit that she was “crying in her [goggles]” during the fall 2019 semester, her first on the team, after Thomas announced her transition to the Penn women’s swimming and diving team. 

After announcing her transition, Thomas took a gap year to undergo testosterone suppression therapy and returned to the pool in fall 2021. Kaczorowski told the DP that she was shocked to find that Thomas utilized the women’s locker room upon her return, despite having reportedly been assured that this would not be the case.

In the lawsuit, Kaczorowski wrote that the team received no prior notice before Thomas began using the women’s locker room and that when she expressed her shock to coach Mike Schnur, he said he could not do anything about it. According to Kaczorowski, Schnur reiterated that point throughout the season when responding to additional complaints from members of the women’s team. 

A request for comment was left with Schnur.

“The root of it is that we are the women on the team,” Kaczorowski said. “How do you not ask us how we feel about it? This is our team. … Even if everyone else had a different opinion than me … how do you not ask every single person their opinion and have a meeting where we can all voice our concerns?” 

During the rest of the 2021-22 season, Thomas collected multiple accolades at the NCAA level, including a national championship win, which drew broader attention. 

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During and after that season, Kaczorowski felt very upset and believed that “if you can read, and you [look at] Title IX … what [Penn and the other defendants] are doing is illegal.” 

Growing up, Estabrook was also part of a powerhouse club swim team — Carmel Swim Club in Indiana, which sent swimmers to the 2024 Paris Olympics. At Penn, she specialized in breaststroke and qualified for Ivy League championships every year except the canceled 2021 meet. Estabrook reiterated the “toxic” and “polarizing” culture on the team during the 2021-22 season in a written statement to the DP. 

Estabrook is currently studying to be a clinical mental health counselor and identifies as a devout Catholic. She wrote that she has “great compassion for people suffering from gender dysphoria” and believes that they “need real people to talk to who will empathetically listen to their stories and hurts.” 

However, she wrote that she “[does] not think that the red carpet should be rolled out for individuals suffering from gender dysphoria in such a way that impedes other people’s rights simply based on their feelings of discomfort with their gender/bodies.”

Kaczorowski and Holmquist — the third plaintiff in the lawsuit — live together, and Kaczorowski noted that her lawyer suggested Holmquist join the lawsuit.

“I can’t be silent about what occurred at Penn. It’s not something I want to just keep pushing down,” Holmquist said.

Holmquist — a two-time United States Swimming Scholastic All-American in high school — alleges that she was left off of the 2022 Ivy championships team roster due to Thomas’ participation in the event. Both Kaczorowski and Estabrook competed in that year’s championships. 

Approximately 17 swimmers on the 2021-22 Penn women’s swimming and diving team could have represented Penn at Ivy championships. Holmquist told the DP that Schnur organized a swim-off race for the 17th and final spot on the championship roster less than two weeks before the meet, and added that she “wasn’t worried” or “nervous” about not making the roster after performing well in practice.

Following the swim-off, Holmquist alleged that Schnur appeared to avoid her, and after asking him where she stood, he responded that she would have to “wait and see if she made the team.” At the next practice, Holmquist learned that she had missed the team by one spot and believed that if Thomas was not on the women’s team, she would have made the championship roster. 

“That was just extremely frustrating. … People who don’t go to Ivies go to a [different] meet. And I just did so horribly … my confidence was completely shattered. Pretty much of a wash of the season,” she said. 

The lawsuit

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After engaging in advocacy work during her college years, Kaczorowski said the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, also known as ICONS, contacted her in the winter of 2024 to secure funding for a Title IX lawsuit. The initial discussions about a suit came within the three-year statute of limitations for civil rights actions in Massachusetts — where the 2022 Ivy championships were held. Kaczorowski noted that ICONS reached out after 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump won the presidency for the second time. 

“I’ve been thinking about [my experience with Thomas] for [at] this point for like five years, and [thought] I’d be a fraud to say no if money was there to do it,” Kaczorowski said.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs claimed that Penn Athletics administrators — while not explicitly stating that the swimmers could not talk to the press — threatened that their reputation “would be tainted with transphobia for the rest of their lives and they would probably never be able to get a job” if they spoke publicly.

All three plaintiffs reported in the lawsuit filing that they ”were encouraged” by the Penn administration to not speak out against Thomas’ participation on the team.

A request for comment was left with Penn Athletics.

“What I went through wasn’t okay,” Kaczorowski told the DP. “I just love Penn, and I love the team, and I loved my coaches and teammates so much. … I don’t want anyone else on any other team or school [to] feel similar to how I felt: … powerless.”

Kaczorowski said she quickly reached out to Estabrook to join the lawsuit, given that the two had “commiserate[d] all the time” while competing with Thomas.

“I kept expecting the adults in leadership positions to stand up, do the right thing, and prevent any of this from occurring. That obviously did not happen when I was at Penn, and I realized … that if I wanted to see real change, I had to be the one to take action,” Estabrook wrote. “I want to see enduring legal precedence set to ensure that this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.”

“I felt like my beliefs did not matter. … all of us who had dissenting opinions were bullied into silence, both by teammates and the Penn administration,” she wrote. 

Holmquist told the DP that she believes that people can represent themselves however they want to, but “bringing that into an athletic atmosphere is completely different, just on the basis of men and women being able to compete and have different athletic capabilities.” 

“You can’t deny that men and women are different athletes in so many ways,” she said. “How does that make any sense? … [Athletic governing bodies] ban a woman for doping for life and not just a year, because you will always retain an advantage, which is the same thing with male puberty,” Kaczorowski said.

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The lawsuit also alleges that Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris and other members of the Ivy League Council of Presidents utilized Thomas to “engineer a public shock and awe display of monolithic support for biological unreality and radical gender ideology.” 

All three plaintiffs cited Thomas’ records remaining intact as a source of frustration and motivation to pursue the suit. 

“I look at the people that [Thomas] took away records from. It’s heartbreaking because I know those people work so hard to get those records, and they were obliterated,” Holmquist said. “Universities and institutions need to take account of what they [allowed].”

While the plaintiffs are suing the NCAA, Harvard — which hosted the 2022 Ivy League championships — and the Ivy League, in addition to Penn, the three swimmers emphasized allegations against Penn for mishandling the situation itself. Estabrook cited the school’s decision to nominate Thomas for NCAA Woman of the Year at the end of the season. 

Estabrook called the nomination a “gut punch,” writing that Penn was “continuing to mock [the swimmers] after the entire year of abuse and brainwashing that [they] had just endured.” 

“I would like to see his records taken off of women’s record boards, so that the young women coming up in the sport have attainable goals to strive after,” she wrote. “I would like a clear court decision to be set, so that it can help reform NCAA and conference policy regarding the exclusion of men from women’s sports.” 

Political response

On Feb. 5 — the day after the lawsuit was filed — Trump signed an executive order explicitly barring transgender women from participating in women’s sports and promising to “rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities.” A day later, the Department of Education announced that it would investigate Penn Athletics for alleged Title IX violations.

“You can overturn any executive order, and we don’t know who’s going to be president in four years or in eight years,” Kaczorowski told the DP. “I felt it was important to try to enshrine women’s rights through the courts and the justice system, rather than relying on an executive order.” 

On Feb. 11, the Education Department 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 — including Thomas’ national championship and multiple program records. 

The three plaintiffs spoke positively of developments since the lawsuit, including the NCAA’s policy change and the federal investigation. However, Holmquist also expressed frustration with “how ironic the timing is.” 

“When the administration is making these changes … most are following [them],” she said. “But why wasn’t that [happening] when it was actually affecting 30 girls on the swim [team] in 2022?”

“I can respect anyone for wanting to be whoever they want to be. … Everyone has free will,” she said. “But when it comes to an athletic sense, the basis of athletics is competing against … each other’s [similar] athletic abilities.”

“I want women to be able to have a positive college athletic experience … and not have to deal with any kind of violation of their rights,” Kaczorowski said.