UPenn swimmer breaks silence on sharing locker room with Lia Thomas

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Former College of Pennsylvania swimmer Monika Burzynska stated she was assigned the locker subsequent to Lia Thomas when the transgender athlete joined the ladies's swim group in 2021. Burzynska beforehand knew the athlete as Will Thomas, a member of the boys's swimming group at UPenn.

"He wasn't very social," Burzynska instructed Fox Information Digital, including she had solely ever had brief, passing conversations with Thomas .

She thought Thomas had already graduated when her group was dealt the information that the athlete could be transitioning to hitch the ladies's group beginning within the 2021-22 season.

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College of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas poses with teammates Hannah Kannan, Camryn Carter and Margot Kaczorowski after successful the 400-yard freestyle relay through the Ivy League Womens Swimming and Diving Championships on Feb. 19, 2022, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Kathryn Riley/Getty Photos)

When that season ultimately started, and Thomas turned a fixture within the ladies's locker room, Burzynska typically retreated to the nook of the room to vary. Different occasions, Burzynska timed precisely when she modified to coincide with when Thomas showered. Ultimately, Burzynska opted to solely change within the stalls or within the household locker throughout the corridor.

"Round Lia, I wasn't going to danger something," Burzynska stated, relating to the potential of the trans athlete seeing her undress.

Burzynska has by no means spoken out about her expertise of being on a group with Thomas till now, amid the current information that UPenn agreed to apologize to all the feminine swimmers, rescind Thomas' program information, and undertake a brand new coverage that applies strict organic definitions for men and women.

She stated the information gave her "a deep sense of peace and validation."

"Not just for me, however for all the ladies on the group, for all the ladies within the swim world and within the sport world. And I believe this resolution, it introduced again – not less than for me – a way of equity that had been misplaced," Burzynska stated. "Ladies's information belong to ladies and that defending the integrity of girls's sports activities nonetheless issues."

Nonetheless, the reminiscences of what Burzynska and others needed to endure lingers.

Burzynska identifies as somebody with conservative values, however says she grew up feeling "compassion" for transgender individuals. Her views modified when she was positioned subsequent to Thomas within the locker room.

"I assumed it should be horrible to really feel such as you're trapped within the mistaken physique. Simply be so out of contact with who you actually are," Burzynska stated. "You have got these points which can be from afar and also you by no means actually fairly suppose they will contact you personally till you are on a group with Lia Thomas and your locker is immediately subsequent to this organic male. And you'd have by no means believed that you just'd be going through this situation immediately.

"After which when that occurs, your views change the place you continue to really feel sorry for this individual as a result of they're clearly so deeply misplaced. However then it turns into extra, ‘OK, this isn't truthful,’" Burzynska added.

As a local of Colonia, New Jersey, Burzynska defined that she grew up in a liberal setting with outstanding pro-LGBTQ sentiment. These values adopted her when she went to UPenn within the deep blue metropolis of Philadelphia.

"We now have a really, very, how ought to I name it, like deep LGBTQ presence on campus the place the campus buildings or the dormitories, slightly than flying the U.S. flag, the trans flag, the LGBTQ flag [were flown]. Every time I go to Penn, I see it is like this big skyscraper dorm, they usually have the most important rainbow flag you could possibly think about," Burzynska stated.

"So I assume, in a way, you could possibly say it encourages it if an individual may be very confused about their id, after which there's this group that appears so accepting, so loving, telling you could possibly be no matter you need to be… that may sort of, yeah, encourage individuals to show that means."

Burzynska, and the opposite feminine swimmers on the group on the time, had been allegedly coerced into silence and submission by UPenn directors.

A lawsuit by three different former Thomas teammates, Grace, Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski and Ellen Holmquist, alleged that college officers pressured them to not communicate out about their ideas on Thomas becoming a member of the group publicly.

"The UPenn directors went on to inform the ladies that if the ladies spoke publicly about their considerations about Thomas’ participation on the Ladies’s Staff, the status of these complaining about Thomas being on the group could be tainted with transphobia for the remainder of their lives and they might in all probability by no means be capable to get a job,’" the lawsuit alleged.

UPENN AGREES TO FOLLOW TRUMP'S MANDATE ON PROTECTING WOMEN'S SPORTS AFTER LIA THOMAS INVESTIGATION

Former UPenn ladies's swimmer Monika Burzynska (Courtesy of Monika Burzynska)

Burzynska, having grown up in a liberal New Jersey city, was already accustomed to the implications of sharing conservative values in a liberal setting.

Burzynska recollects, from a younger age, typically being criticized for having "conservative or Republican values."

"I had been experiencing that eternally. And even UPenn, I believe it is each college at this level, however UPenn may be very, very left-leaning. And so I used to be sort of able to embrace that, that my views would not be welcomed as a result of, yeah, I have been conservative most of my life. My beliefs are grounded in religion."

Burzynska recollects a futile dialog she had together with her head coach, Mike Schnur, when she confronted him with considerations about being on a group with Thomas.

"We had this lengthy assembly, I do not know, nearly two hours lengthy. And he stated, 'Hear, Monika, I perceive all of your considerations. They're all legitimate. I do not suppose any of them would deter you from persevering with onto your senior yr and having a profitable senior yr. I believe the one factor that might deter you is that Lia is altering in your locker room and there is nothing you could possibly do about it,'" Burzynska stated.

"I instructed him in that assembly, ‘What are you speaking about? Like, how is that this truthful?’ And his response was, 'It isn't truthful, however when you've got any points with it, come to me… Do not discuss it with everybody else. Come to me. We'll discuss by means of it'"

Burzynska stated she by no means took Schnur up on that supply, believing that he would not do something about it anyway.

Nonetheless, she alleges she witnessed her teammates having these futile conversations with Schnur, from a distance.

Then got here the directors that allegedly pressured the ladies's swimmers who objected to Thomas to go to pro-LGBTQ counseling. Burzynska stated she referred to as the counseling session "brainwashing conferences."

She by no means attended the periods.

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Burzynska has since moved on from the state of affairs and has embraced her life and profession past it.

Nonetheless, she admits that elements of the state of affairs instilled "trauma" in her, and he or she is grateful that President Donald Trump's administration made it a precedence to instill penalties on UPenn.

"These [women's] rights at Penn had been clearly compromised so it is superb that they regarded into it and Trump took it so severely," Burzynska stated.

Fox Information Digital has reached out to UPenn for a response to Burzynska's statements.

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Jackson Thompson is a sports activities author for Fox Information Digital. He beforehand labored for ESPN and Enterprise Insider. Jackson has lined the Tremendous Bowl and NBA Finals, and has interviewed iconic figures Usain Bolt, Rob Gronkowski, Jerry Rice, Troy Aikman, Mike Trout, David Ortiz and Roger Clemens.