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Updated July 29, 2025, at 2:14 p.m.

A federal judge on Monday dismissed claims against Harvard from a lawsuit filed by three former University of Pennsylvania swimmers alleging Harvard violated Title IX regulations by allowing a transgender swimmer to compete in a 2022 women’s swim championship.

The suit — filed against Harvard, Penn, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and the Ivy League Council of Presidents in early February — accused Harvard of breaking federal nondiscrimination law by allowing transgender swimmer Lia Thomas to compete in the the 2022 Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships, hosted at Harvard.

Lawyers for the University asked to be dismissed from the suit in April, arguing that Harvard did not make decisions around eligibility and followed NCAA policy — which, until February, permitted transgender athletes to compete on women’s teams if their testosterone levels were below a limit set within each sport.

The suit also alleges that Harvard violated Title IX by failing to provide sex-separated locker rooms where cisgender female athletes could change separately from transgender teammates and competitors. Lawyers for the University argued again that the provided locker rooms were compliant with NCAA policy.

U.S. District Judge William G. Young ’62, who is overseeing the case, ruled that Harvard hosting a championship in compliance with existing standards did not constitute a separate Title IX violation from claims against Penn and the NCAA. The claims against Harvard alone did not have precedent under Title IX law, he wrote.

Proceedings for the remaining case against Penn and the NCAA will be paused until Gaines v. NCAA — another Title IX case over the NCAA’s former eligibility policies for transgender athletes, filed by former University of Kentucky swimmer and anti-trans activist Riley Gaines — is decided in Georgia’s federal district court.

The suit against Harvard, Penn, and the two athletic associations was first filed in February by Grace Estabrook, Ellen Holmquist, and Margot Kaczorowski, all of whom competed alongside Thomas at Penn between 2018 and 2024. They also alleged that they were denied opportunities in their sport when Thomas placed above them.

Under pressure from the Trump administration, Penn recently agreed to remove records held individually by Thomas and give them instead to cisgender woman swimmers who held the next-lowest times. The Trump administration has also ordered the NCAA, other regulatory bodies, and universities to prevent transgender women from competing in women’s sports.

—Staff writer Laurel M. Shugart can be reached at laurel.shugart@thecrimson.com. Follow them on X @laurelmshugart.