Lia Thomas and the Rules for Transgender Swimmers

Timeline

1. May 2019Thomas begins hormone therapy after swimming on Penn's men's team.
2. 2021–22 seasonHaving met NCAA hormone requirements, Thomas competes on Penn's women's team.
3. Feb 2022Sixteen Penn swimmers sign a letter saying Thomas should not be allowed to compete in women's events.
4. Mar 17, 2022Thomas wins the NCAA women's 500-yard freestyle.
5. Jun 19, 2022World swimming's governing body adopts a policy barring most transgender women from elite women's events.
6. Jun 2024CAS rules that Thomas lacks standing to challenge the policy.
7. Feb 6, 2025The NCAA limits women's competition to athletes assigned female at birth.
8. Jul 1, 2025Penn reaches an agreement with the Department of Education to update records and restore withheld funding.

The ethical issues

• Competitive fairness: whether male puberty confers lasting advantage after hormone therapy.
• Inclusion: transgender athletes' opportunity to compete.
• Rule changes: fairness to an athlete who competed under the rules at the time.
• Privacy and harassment: the treatment of a college student in the public spotlight.
• Government power: federal funding used to change university athletics policy.

Stakeholders

Stakeholder	Interests & obligations
Lia Thomas	Her right to compete and her dignity.
Women swimmers	Fair competition, places and records.
Penn	Compliance, funding and its students' welfare.
NCAA and World Aquatics	Coherent eligibility rules.
Transgender athletes	Opportunities to compete.
Federal government	Its interpretation and enforcement of Title IX.

The case

Lia Thomas joined the University of Pennsylvania men’s swimming team in 2017. In 2019, she finished second in three distance events at the Ivy League men’s championships.^[1] She began hormone therapy in May 2019. After the 2020–21 season was canceled because of the pandemic, she had met the NCAA’s requirement of a year of testosterone suppression and joined the women’s team for 2021–22.^[1]

Background

The ranking comparisons that drove much of the debate need context. In 2018–19, competing for the men’s team, Thomas ranked 554th nationally in the 200-yard freestyle, 65th in the 500 and 32nd in the 1,650. In 2021–22, on the women’s team, she ranked fifth, first and eighth.^[1] Those men’s rankings have been questioned because they came from a meet that was not a full championship and she had not tapered for it.^[1] Her results were also mixed. In a January 2022 meet against Yale she finished sixth in the 100 freestyle, behind four women and a transgender man who had not taken hormones.^[1]

Pressure on the governing bodies built during the season. In December 2021, anonymous parents of Penn swimmers wrote to the NCAA asking that Thomas be declared ineligible.^[1] At the championships in Atlanta, roughly 50 protesters and counter-protesters gathered outside the aquatic center.^[1] Days after the final, Florida’s governor issued a proclamation calling the runner-up the “rightful winner,” though he had no authority over the result.^[1] The American Civil Liberties Union defended Thomas’s place on the team.^[1]

The rules and governance

The rules changed under Thomas while she was competing. In 2021–22, NCAA policy required one year of testosterone suppression for transgender women in women’s events, and Thomas met it.^[1] In January 2022, the NCAA moved to a sport-by-sport approach following each national governing body. That shift prompted debate about whether the new USA Swimming criteria would apply before the championships.^[1][3] The 2022 FINA policy set a puberty-based rule for elite international events, which national federations then had to consider.^[4]

U.S. federal law then became decisive. Following executive orders in early 2025 and the administration’s reading of Title IX as defined by sex assigned at birth, the NCAA restricted women’s competition. Penn agreed to state its compliance with that interpretation and update its records.^[1][6][8] Thomas’s CAS case turned on a procedural rule: only athletes eligible to compete under World Aquatics’ jurisdiction could challenge its policy.^[1][5]

The season

Thomas posted some of the fastest times in the country. Her 500-yard freestyle time was more than 15 seconds slower than her best before transitioning.^[1] Critics pointed to her move from 65th among men to first among women in some national rankings.^[1] In February 2022, 16 Penn swimmers signed a letter saying she should not be allowed to compete in women’s events. Others on the team supported her.^[3]

On March 17, 2022, Thomas won the NCAA Division I women’s 500-yard freestyle in 4:33.24, becoming the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I national title in any sport. Olympic silver medalist Emma Weyant finished 1.75 seconds behind. Protesters gathered outside the venue.^[1][2] Thomas did not win her other events.^[1]

New rules

On June 19, 2022, world swimming’s governing body, then called FINA and now World Aquatics, adopted a policy barring transgender women from elite women’s events unless they could show they had not gone through male puberty beyond Tanner stage 2 or age 12, whichever was later. It said it would explore an “open” category.^[4] Thomas called the policy discriminatory. Her challenge at the Court of Arbitration for Sport was dismissed in June 2024 because she was not registered with USA Swimming to compete in elite events and so lacked standing.^[1][5]

In February 2025, the day after a presidential executive order on women’s sports, the NCAA changed its policy. Women’s competition was limited to student-athletes assigned female at birth, though transgender women could still practice with women’s teams.^[6] The policy took effect immediately and applied “regardless of previous eligibility reviews” under the old rules. It also barred athletes assigned female at birth who had begun testosterone therapy from competing on women’s teams. Men’s teams remained open to all eligible athletes, and sports with mixed men’s and women’s championships, such as rifle, were exempt. Athletes barred from women’s competition could still practice and receive benefits such as medical care.^[6] NCAA President Charlie Baker said that “clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions,” and that “President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard.”^[6] The NCAA noted that individual schools remained subject to local, state and federal law, which supersedes its rules.^[6]

Penn’s agreement

In March 2025, the federal government suspended $175 million in funding to Penn over Thomas’s participation.^[7] On July 1, 2025, Penn reached an agreement with the Department of Education. It said its policies in 2021–22 had followed NCAA rules at the time, but acknowledged that some athletes had been disadvantaged and apologized to them. It updated its records with a note on Thomas’s results and restored the women’s records. The withheld funding was released.^[1][8]

The Department’s Office for Civil Rights had opened its investigation on February 6, 2025. It said it found that Penn violated Title IX by letting Thomas compete on the women’s team and use women’s facilities.^[9] Under the resolution agreement, Penn had to restore to female athletes the individual swimming records and titles Thomas had won and send “a personalized letter of apology to each impacted female swimmer.” It also had to issue a public statement that it would not allow athletes it defines as male to compete in women’s programs, adopt the biology-based definitions in the administration’s executive orders, and rescind any guidance that conflicted with them.^[9]

Aftermath

Thomas graduated from Penn in 2022 with plans to attend law school.^[1] A swimmer who placed 17th in the 500-yard final, one place short of qualifying, complained to the NCAA. Her complaint became part of later arguments about how inclusion policies affect places and opportunities.^[1]

The core dilemma

Thomas followed the rules that applied when she competed. Other swimmers said those rules were unfair to them. The rules then changed, and her university apologized under federal pressure. What do fairness and respect require, for Thomas and for the women she competed against?

Competing values

• Inclusion vs. competitive fairness: transgender athletes’ participation against a level field in the women’s category.
• Rules at the time vs. later judgment: respecting past eligibility against correcting perceived unfairness.
• Individual dignity vs. public debate: a student’s privacy against a national controversy.
• Institutional autonomy vs. government power: universities and the NCAA against federal enforcement.

Strongest arguments

For Thomas’s inclusion: she met the NCAA’s requirements, lost speed after transitioning and did not dominate every event. Excluding transgender women denies them the benefits of sport.

For exclusion or restriction: research suggests that male puberty confers advantages in muscle mass, height and lung capacity that hormone therapy does not fully reverse. Women who lost places, finals or records bore the cost.

Applying the frameworks

Justice

A justice lens asks how fairness should be defined in a sex-segregated category: by protecting the competitive opportunities of women who have not gone through male puberty, or by including transgender women who meet medical criteria. It also asks about procedural justice: rules changed mid-season and were applied differently by different bodies.

Rights

A rights lens weighs transgender athletes’ rights to participate and to be free from discrimination against other women’s rights to fair competition and equal opportunity under Title IX. Both sides claim rights; the question is how institutions balance them and who decides.

Utilitarian

Consequentialists ask which policy produces the best outcomes overall: for inclusion, for fair competition, for participation of girls and women, and for the wellbeing of transgender athletes who face intense public scrutiny. Different weighting of these effects explains much of the disagreement.

Walk it through: the Simple Decision Model

1. Spot the issue. You are an NCAA policy official in January 2022, weeks before the championships. The stakeholders include transgender athletes, other women athletes, coaches, schools, national governing bodies and the public. The codes in play are NCAA eligibility rules, Title IX and national federation policies.
2. Gather facts. What does the scientific evidence show about the effects of testosterone suppression on performance in swimming? What policies do other sports bodies apply?
3. Test options. Options: (a) keep the current rule for the season; (b) adopt national federation rules immediately; (c) adopt new rules prospectively, with notice. Weigh fairness to competitors against fairness to an athlete who complied with existing rules.
4. Check codes and law. Are political pressures influencing the timing? Would the rule be acceptable if you did not know which athlete you would be?
5. Decide and document. Record the evidence and the reasoning for the policy.
6. Communicate and follow up. Communicate the decision clearly to all athletes, explain how it will be applied, and commit to reviewing it as evidence develops.

What’s settled and what’s contested

• Settled: Thomas’s NCAA title; the World Aquatics policy; the CAS dismissal; the NCAA’s 2025 change; Penn’s agreement.
• Contested: the size and persistence of any retained advantage; whether the policy changes were fair to Thomas; the role of the federal government.

Why this case matters

Thomas’s victory made transgender inclusion one of the most debated issues in sport. Her case shows how quickly eligibility rules can change, and how individual athletes become the focus of broader conflicts.

Key terms

Distributive justice

Fairness in how scarce opportunities, resources, benefits and burdens are shared.

Reasonable accommodation

Adjusting conditions so people can take part, without lowering the standard. Fairness isn’t sameness.

Veil of ignorance

Rawls’s test for fair rules: design the policy as if you did not know which position you would end up in.

Stakeholders

Everyone with something at stake in a decision: athletes, coaches, parents, officials, fans, employees, sponsors, media, communities and regulators, including the less visible ones.

Definitions from the Ethics Cases glossary.

Discussion questions

1. Thomas competed under NCAA rules in effect at the time. Was it fair for Penn later to apologize to swimmers and update records?
2. World Aquatics allows transgender women to compete in women's events only if they did not go through male puberty past age 12. Is that a reasonable line? Why or why not?
3. How should sports bodies weigh evidence about retained advantages against the value of inclusion?
4. What responsibilities do universities have toward a student athlete who becomes the focus of national controversy?
5. Should federal funding be used to change universities' athletic policies?

Sources

1. Lia Thomas — Wikipedia
2. Thomas first transgender athlete to win D-I title — ESPN
3. Sixteen Penn swimmers say transgender teammate Lia Thomas should not be allowed to compete — The Washington Post
4. Transgender women swimmers barred from female competitions by Fina — The Guardian
5. Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas loses legal challenge in CAS ruling — USA Today
6. NCAA announces transgender student-athlete participation policy change — NCAA
7. Trump suspends $175 million in funding to University of Pennsylvania over trans athletes — NPR
8. UPenn updates records, will apologize to female swimmers over Lia Thomas — Associated Press
9. U.S. Department of Education Announces the University of Pennsylvania Has Entered into a Resolution Agreement to Resolve its Title IX Violations — U.S. Department of Education