EXCLUSIVE: The former swimmer of the University of Pennsylvania, Grace Estabrook, was one of the many young women who shared a swimming pool and changing rooms with the Transgender Lia Thomas swimmer during the 2021-222 season.
From 2019, when she was informed for the first time that Thomas would join her team, until her last year in 2022, Estabrook alleged that she had been forced several times by the university so as not to ‘Oppose Thomas’ inclusion in the team. Estabrook told PK Press Club Digital that the administrators had tried to convince her that she would never get jobs or would never have entered higher education if she has spoken out against this and that any problem she had With the situation was because she had a “psychological problem”.
And between the practices and the meetings that made him feel “uncomfortable” and “helpless”, Estabrook says that she also witnessed the consumer media Celebrate Thomas as the icon of civil rights and even to be appointed for the price of the NCAA Woman of the Year.
But now, in 2025, Estabrook is one of the three former UPENN swimmers who filed a complaint against the University, the Ivy League and the NCAA for the treatment of the situation while the tides on the question turn to The Court of Public opinion.
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Lia Thomas de Penn is waiting to swim in a 40 -meter -free qualification heat at the Ivy League swimming and female swimming championships at Harvard University, on February 18, 2022, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP photo / Mary Schwalm)
PK Press Club Digital contacted Upenn to comment.
Recent data suggests that the vast majority of Americans are now opposed to Trans athletes in female sports. The NCAA recently changed its policy to prevent them from participating in the women’s category after President Donald Trump signed an executive decree to solve the problem last Wednesday.
However, many Democrats continue to fight for transplants in female and girls sports, and several states have not respected Trump’s order.
For Estabrook, who says that she has experienced the experience of changing her clothes with Thomas in the room and being threatened not to complain, the thought of elected officials always fighting for a cause that guarantees that Other women experience what she did is “depressing.”
“It’s really depressing,” said Estabrook. “I just don’t know why someone would like to perpetuate abuse for large-scale women like this. I think that’s why we do what we do. It is because we want a clear court decision that will help institutions be able to define clear policies to ensure that this no longer happens.
Estabrook’s trip throughout the situation with Upenn presented frequent “depressing” moments.
Her locker was only a few meters from Thomas in the locker room, forcing her to support herself in a corner for her own comfort.
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“I would come back in a corner that had low visibility and I would try to change as quickly as possible, and I had other teammates who went to the bathroom stands and would change there,” said Estabrook.
“We were those who were forced to hide, it was very uncomfortable, and there was just this constant fear and disturbance of peace in the same way:” OK, I no longer have a safe environment here ” , not only physically but emotionally and psychologically, and it was incredibly stressful.
Estabrook added that the situation exerted “incredible” stress on its mind and body, and that disturbed its swimming capacity.
Thomas’ positive media coverage was the insulting cherry in addition to the situation for Estabrook. She said that several times she and her teammates went to a competition, they not only had to face Thomas’ anxiety in their space, but also a horde of journalists to cover the trans athlete under a positive day.
“I just remember feeling:” It’s so foreign, “said Estabrook. “It was just as if it was all this celebration of Thomas and the whole movement of transgender ideology.”
“All the media I remember having seen or reading at the time celebrated Thomas as this revolutionary figure figure of the transgender community … There was just such a celebration that it was really pushed on our faces and we forcing to accept it. “
Estabrook said the most difficult time for experience has arrived at the Ivy League 2022 championships. She hoped that Thomas would be deemed ineligible to participate. However, Ivy League allowed Thomas to swim. Thomas finally established pool records at each individual event in which the athlete competed and exceeded the winner’s podium four times.
Thomas then achieved a performance similar to the NCAA 2022 championships. There, Thomas found himself in a sad equality with the former swimmer of the University of Kentucky, Riley Gaines. This link finally triggered the seeds of change that gave Estabrook and countless other women hope that experience has prompted sheaths to speak and become a leading defender for female athletes who are looking for protection against inclusion inclusion trans.
Former swimmer of Upenn Grace Estabrook (Grace Estabrook)
“I was so grateful for her bravery,” said Estabrook. “I feel really empowered by the work that Riley Gaines has done and see women jump on this same train and start expressing himself. … It allowed me to do the same.”
More hope came last year after Trump was committed during an interview with PK Press Club town hall in October that, if it were elected, he would prohibit trans athletes in female sports. Trump won the elections and exit surveys suggested that the question of Trans inclusion played a leading role in the decision of many moderate voters.
Trump quickly made his promise, signing the executive decree “No Men in Women’s Sports on Wednesday. For Estabrook, seeing this materialized contributed to asserting his political convictions.
“I was very excited to hear this and even more excited when it became a reality last week so quickly after it takes office,” said Estabrook. “It is simply very encouraging to see that we have a president who supports us so much and who also sees him in accordance with reality.”
The Estabrook trial, which was deposited alongside former teammates Ellen Holmquist and Margot Kaczorowski, seeks to have revoked all the records and distinctions of Thomas as a swimmer.
In addition to the Estabrook trial, the Trump Ministry of Education launched an investigation into the potential title IX violations that occurred in Upenn and also advised NCAA to reject Thomas’ distinctions in the women’s category.
