Female University of Pennsylvania teammates of trans swimmer Lia Thomas are hailing the school’s move to ban biological men from competing on women’s teams.
The female Ivy League swimmers were forced to share their locker room with Thomas — who is biologically male but identifies as female — and would often change in bathroom stalls or wait until the trans athlete was in the shower to undress.
“Around Lia, I wasn’t going to risk anything,” former UPenn swimmer Monika Burzynska recently told Fox News.
Burzynska, whose locker was right next to Thomas’ when they both joined the team in 2021, said she was uncomfortable changing in front of the trans swimmer, so at first, she would hunker in a locker-room corner to change.
Lia Thomas joined the UPenn women’s swim team in 2021 after competing on the men’s team. Getty Images Ellen Holmquist was one of three former teammates of Thomas’