A former University of Pennsylvania swimmer has broken her silence following the university’s decision to strip Lia Thomas of women’s titles and records under new Title IX directives from the Trump administration. She described the discomfort and imbalance female athletes endured competing alongside a biological male, praising the reversal as a step toward restoring fairness in women’s sports.
Monika Burzynska, one of Thomas’s former teammates, shared personal experiences of unease in the locker room during the 2021–2022 swim season. She stated that changing next to a biological male caused enough discomfort that she resorted to using restroom stalls or shifting her schedule to avoid undressing around Thomas. “Around Lia, I wasn’t going to risk anything,” she said. Her statement follows the university’s compliance with a Trump-era executive order mandating sports participation based on biological sex.
The policy, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” forced UPenn to revoke Thomas’s records and titles and reassign them to the top-performing biological females. The move came after the Department of Education froze $175 million in federal funding to compel institutional compliance. Education Secretary Linda McMahon emphasized that the goal is to protect female athletes’ rights and uphold the original intent of Title IX.
Burzynska, raised in a liberal, faith-friendly environment, initially sympathized with Thomas but ultimately recognized the situation as unfair to women. “I still feel sorry,” she said, “but then it turns into more, ‘OK, this is not fair.’” Other former teammates, including Margot Kaczorowski and Ellen Holmquist, echoed her sentiment, welcoming the university’s decision while urging stronger protections going forward.
President Trump’s administration has made safeguarding women’s sports a key policy point. The directive to reestablish biological distinctions in athletic participation has drawn strong support from groups who argue that protecting women’s privacy, safety, and competitive equity is a moral imperative.
