EXCLUSIVE: Former University of Pennsylvania women’s swimmers Grace Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski and Ellen Holmquist have filed a lawsuit against the university, Harvard University, the NCAA and the Ivy League Council of Presidents over their experience sharing a team with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. The lawsuit does not name Thomas as a defendant.
According to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital, Estabrok, Kaczorowski and Holmquist argue that Thomas’ eligibility to compete as a woman for UPenn violated their Title IX rights. It argues the NCAA’s 2010, which allows biological males to compete in the women’s category based on their preferred gender identity, is “discriminatory.”
The women claim that by allowing Thomas to compete, the institutions “injured them and violated federal law.”
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The lawsuit also detailed the personal experiences each of the women faced having to share a team and locker room with Thomas. Each of the plaintiffs claims the experience left them “repeatedly emotionally traumatized.”
The plaintiffs allege that the university administrators pushed pro-trans ideology onto them throughout the process of accepting Thomas on the team and in their locker room. The former swimmers say that they were led to feel their concerns over being teammates with Thomas was rooted in a “psychological problem.”
“The UPenn administrators told the women that if anyone was struggling with accepting Thomas’s participation on the UPenn Women’s team, they should seek counseling and support from CAPS and the LBGTQ center,” the lawsuit alleges.
“The administrators also invited the women to a talk titled, ‘Trans 101.’ Thus, the women were led to understand that UPenn’s position was that if a woman on the team had any problem with a trans-identifying male being on her team that woman had a psychological problem and needed counseling.”
Lia Thomas of the Pennsylvania Quakers swims in the 500 yard freestyle event during a tri-meet against the Yale Bulldogs and the Dartmouth Big Green at Sheerr Pool on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania on January 8, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Hunter Martin/Getty Images)
The plaintiffs also allege that the administrators warned them against speaking out against the situation publicly.
“The UPenn administrators went on to tell the women that if the women spoke publicly about their concerns about Thomas’ participation on the Women’s Team, the reputation of those complaining about Thomas being on the team would be tainted with transphobia for the rest of their lives and they would probably never be able to get a job,’” the lawsuit alleges.
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Thomas, a biological male, previously competed for the UPenn men’s swimming team from 2017-20 under the name Will Thomas. According to the lawsuit, Thomas was introduced by women’s swimming head coach Mike Schnur to the women’s swimmers during a team meeting in Fall 2019 as their incoming teammate.
The lawsuit alleges that coaches and UPenn administrators told the women’s swimmers not to talk about Thomas’ situation. Schnur allegedly told the women’s swimmers that Thomas wouldn’t be sharing a locker room with them when they asked after the initial introduction.
But that allegedly changed later.
Thomas officially began to practice and compete with the women’s swimmers in Fall 2021.
And that was when the female swimmers say they discovered that Schnur’s alleged claim Thomas wouldn’t share a locker room was not true.
“When UPenn’s women’s swimmers returned to school in the fall of 2021 they were shocked to discover that Thomas was being allowed to use the women’s locker room at UPenn and would be allowed to use the women’s locker room at swim meets,” the lawsuit alleges.
“Margot [Kaczorowski] only learned that Thomas had been authorized by UPenn to use the women’s locker room when [Kaczorowski] walked in the women’s locker room to find Thomas in front of her changing his clothing.”
Per the suit, Kaczorowski confronted Schnur in tears about her shock of discovering Thomas would now share a locker room with her. She alleges the coach responded by saying “I know it’s wrong but there’s nothing I can do.”
“Coach Schnur told the Plaintiffs he would be fired by UPenn if he did not allow Thomas to use the women’s locker room and compete on the women’s swim team,” the lawsuit alleges.
In December 2021, another team meeting was held to discuss Thomas’ presence on the team and the media attention it garnered, per the court documents. The female swimmers allege they were told that Thomas would continue to be on their team and that “Lia swimming is a non-negotiable.”
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The three female swimmers allege that they were made to believe they would be removed from the team if they tried to protest Thomas’ participation ahead of the 2022 Ivy League championships.
“UPenn swim team members were told by Coach Schnur and UPenn administrators that UPenn administrators coordinated closely with the NCAA and the Ivy League to ensure that Thomas would be eligible for the 2021-2022 women’s swimming season,” the suit alleged.
“These statements about close coordination between UPenn, the Ivy League and the NCAA regarding Thomas’ eligibility led the UPenn Women’s Team members to understand the resisting or protesting the participation of Thomas on the team or his presence in the locker room would be futile and could result in the women being removed from the team or from UPenn.”
At the 2022 Ivy League Swimming Championships, Thomas came in first in the 500-, 200- and 100-yard freestyle races, setting pool and Ivy League records, and was ultimately the highest-scoring swimmer at the entire meet. That year’s competition was hosted at Harvard’s Blodgett Pool in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas poses with her teammates Hannah Kannan, Camryn Carter, and Margot Kaczorowski after winning the 400 yard freestyle relay during the 2022 Ivy League Womens Swimming and Diving Championships at Blodgett Pool on February 19, 2022 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Kathryn Riley/Getty Images)
The lawsuit alleges that Harvard made no accommodations for any of the female athletes who did not want to share a locker room or restroom with Thomas.
“Harvard did not provide a unisex bathroom or separate bathroom for Thomas to use or for any other women to use who did not want to use the Women’s Locker room while Thomas was using it,” the suit alleges.
After Thomas’ record-breaking performance in Cambridge that February, the athlete went on to compete at that year’s NCAA championships. There, an infamous tie with former University of Kentucky Riley Gaines resulted in Thomas hoisting the trophy for photo-ops over the biologically female Gaines.
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Gaines has since filed her own lawsuit against the NCAA alongside several other female athletes who have been affected by the association’s gender identity policies.
Other female competitors from that event who joined Gaines’ lawsuit have spoken out about their experience with Thomas as well.
Former North Carolina State women’s swimmer Kylee Alons, a 31-time All-American and two-time NCAA champion, spoke about the experience competing against and sharing a locker room with Thomas, during a Georgia senate committee hearing on Jan. 30.
“We all were just guinea pigs for a giant social experiment formed by the NCAA regarding how much abuse and blatant disregard women would be forced to take in silence,” Alons said. “I go to the locker room that day only to see Thomas and realize there is no escape from this nightmare, no matter where I go. I had no idea he was going to be allowed in the women’s locker room as we did not consent to have a man in our locker room.”
Former University of Kentucky swimmer Kaitlynn Wheeler joined Lyons in recounting the experience of sharing a locker room with Thomas at the Jan. 30 hearing.
“Young women, teenage girls were forced to undress next to a fully intact biological male who exposed himself to us, while we were simultaneously fully exposed,” Wheeler said. “We were never asked. We were never given a choice or another option. We were just expected to be OK with it, to shove down our discomfort, our embarrassment, our fear, because standing up for ourselves would mean being labeled as intolerant or hateful or bigoted.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to UPenn, Harvard, The Ivy League and the NCAA for comment, but has not received a response at the time of publication.
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NCAA President Charlie Baker addressed concerns over the issue of female athletes having to share teams and locker rooms with trans athletes during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in December.
There, Baker insisted that female athletes have the option to find other accommodations if they’re uncomfortable sharing with transgenders.
“Everybody else should have an opportunity to use other facilities if they wish to do so,” Baker said.
Baker also says that the NCAA’s policies that allow trans athletes to compete against women is based on federal standards.
Those federal standards may change in the coming days.
President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order to ban trans athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives passed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act Jan. 14, which would cut federal funding for any public educational institution that allows transgender athletes to compete against girls and women in sports.
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