Overview

• The University of Pennsylvania settled a federal Title IX case by agreeing to bar transgender athletes from its women’s sports teams.
• A Department of Education civil rights investigation determined that Penn violated Title IX by allowing Lia Thomas to compete in women’s swimming in 2021–22.
• The settlement obliges Penn to rescind Thomas’s individual swim records and titles, restore them to the original finishers and send each an apology letter.
• Penn must release a public statement affirming that individuals who have experienced male puberty cannot compete in women’s athletics or use facilities reserved for female athletes.
• The agreement follows tightened eligibility rules from sports authorities such as World Aquatics, whose puberty-based policy for transgender athletes was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2024.