Penn removes swimmer Lia Thomas’ name from its list of individual records
The university updated its record book on Tuesday to comply with an agreement with the Department of Education. The transgender swimmer's name is still listed among the records for relays.
Lia Thomas no longer has three times listed among the university records for Penn’s women’s swimming program, including the mark that made her the first out transgender athlete to win an NCAA championship.
The school updated its record book Tuesday after announcing it would do so for records set during the 2021-22 season as part of a resolution agreement with the U.S. Department of Education so that it would indicate who holds records under current NCAA eligibility guidelines. The NCAA in February announced that a student-athlete assigned male at birth may not compete for an NCAA women’s team.
In the Penn record book on the athletics website, there’s a new note underneath the list of school records: “Competing under eligibility rules in effect at the time, Lia Thomas set program records in the 100, 200 and 500 freestyle during the 2021-22 season.”
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Thomas also remains in the record book in another sense. She is listed along with Margot Kaczorowski, Hannah Kannan, and Camryn Carter for a record in the 4x100 freestyle relay. When Penn resolved a Department of Education investigation into its compliance with Title IX, the agreement involved individual records, according to the department.
Kaczorowski, a Haddon Heights native, is among the former teammates of Thomas who in February sued Penn, the Ivy League, and NCAA claiming Title IX violations over Thomas’ participation. The plaintiffs asked to have Thomas’ records vacated and removed from all public record boards.
Kaczorowski told Fox & Friends on Wednesday that Penn’s agreement with the Department of Education was “a good starting point” and that she received her personalized letter of apology from the school as part of the agreement. Former Penn teammate Ellen Holmquist, a fellow plaintiff, said in the interview of receiving her own letter that Penn was “passing the blame onto the NCAA” and that she hoped Penn would “take full responsibility in court.” Former swimmer Paula Scanlan posted on X an apology letter via email attributed to Penn athletic director Alanna Wren.
Asked if Thomas’ individual results from that season would remain or be vacated, a Penn spokesperson referred to the updated record book. The NCAA and Ivy League did not immediately respond to questions about their records and the NCAA championship.
Thomas became the first Penn women’s swimmer to win an NCAA individual title when in 2022 she won the 500-yard freestyle at the NCAA women’s swimming championships at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Finishing ahead of two U.S. Olympians in the race, Thomas notched a program-record time of 4 minutes, 33.24 seconds. Penn now lists its school record as having been set by Anna Kalandadze in 2024 at 4:37.21.
Two days after her championship swim, Thomas set another program record at the NCAA championships in the 100 freestyle preliminaries in 47.37 seconds. Penn now lists its record as having been set by Kayla Fu in February at 48.61 when she won the Ivy League title.
A third record no longer listed is Thomas’ 200 freestyle result in the 2021 Zippy Invitational in Akron, Ohio, which drew attention with the winning time of 1:41.93 being the fastest in the country and enabling her to win by nearly seven seconds. Penn now lists its record as having been set by Virginia Burns in 2017 at 1:45.51.