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CV NEWS FEED // Three female swimmers who competed for University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) in 2022 filed a lawsuit Feb. 4 claiming the Ivy League, Harvard University, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) violated Title IX by allowing a man to participate in women’s swimming.
According to Law.com, Grace Estabrook, Ellen Holmquist and Margot Kaczorowski are suing on behalf of women’s Ivy League swimmers who were eligible to compete at the 2022 Ivy League Championships, in which Lia (born William) Thomas, a male swimmer, competed for UPenn. They filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
“The suit accuses the Ivy League, UPenn, Harvard and the NCAA of conspiring and collaborating to permit 6’4” Thomas to compete for the remainder of the 2022 season,” Law.com states, “after a regulatory change was imposed that would have excluded Thomas from competing.”
The lawsuit argues that Title IX protections do not extend to men claiming to be women and that the swimmers who lost to Thomas suffered “a concrete, particularized and redressable injury under Title IX.”
It pointed to Thomas’ advantages over women, which were not offset by undergoing feminizing hormones. As an example, the complaint states that his best 100 meter freestyle time in male competitions was 47.15 seconds and his best time when competing against women was 47.37.
The plaintiffs request injunctive relief removing Thomas’ records from Ivy League and NCAA records, as well as from the records of participating institutions, including UPenn. It also seeks a declaration that Thomas was not eligible to compete for UPenn.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Feb. 5 banning men from participating in women’s sports, as CatholicVote previously reported.
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