UPenn swimmer breaks silence on sharing locker room with Lia Thomas

Former College of Pennsylvania swimmer Monika Burzynska mentioned she acquired the protected subsequent to Lia Thomas when the Transgenderatleet arrived on the ladies’s swimming workforce in 2021. Burzynska beforehand knew the athlete as Will Thomas, a member of the lads’s swimming workforce at Upenn.

“He was not very social,” Burzynska Fox Information Digital advised, and added that she had solely had quick, passing conversations with Thomas.

She thought that Thomas had already graduated when her workforce acquired the information that the athlete would swap to change into a member of the ladies’s workforce from the 2021-22 season.

Click on right here for extra sports activities reporting on Foxnews.com

College of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas poses with teammates Hannah Kannan, Camryn Carter and Margot Kaczorowski after successful the 400-Yard Freestyle Estafette in the course of the Ivy League Women Swims and Diving Championships on 19 Feb. 2022, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Kathryn Riley/Getty photos)

When that season lastly began and Thomas grew to become a contest within the women’ dressing room, Burzynska usually moved again to the nook of the room to alter. Different occasions Burzynska was precisely timed when she modified to coincide with Thomas showered. Ultimately, Burzynska selected to alter alone within the stalls or within the household cupboard within the corridor.

“I used to be not going to danger something round Lia,” mentioned Burzynska, concerning the chance that the Transatleet noticed her undress.

Burzynska has by no means spoken about her expertise in a workforce with Thomas thus far, within the midst of the latest information that Upenn agreed to apologize to all feminine swimmers, to dissolve the information of Thomas and to imagine a brand new coverage that applies strict organic definitions for women and men.

She mentioned the information gave her a deep feeling of peace and validation. ”

“Not just for me, however for all the ladies within the workforce, for all the ladies within the swimming world and within the sports activities world. And I feel this determination has introduced it again – no less than for me – a sense of honesty that had been misplaced,” mentioned Burzynska. “The ladies’s information belong to ladies and that defending the integrity of sports activities sports activities continues to be essential.”

But the recollections of what Burzynska and others needed to live on.

Burzynska identifies himself as somebody with conservative values, however says she grew up with a “compassion” for transgender individuals. Her views modified when she was positioned subsequent to Thomas within the dressing room.

“I believed it ought to be horrible to really feel that you’re trapped within the improper physique. Simply be like this from contact who you actually are,” mentioned Burzynska. “You’ve these issues which can be far-off and also you by no means actually suppose they are going to contact you personally till you’re in a workforce with Lia Thomas and your protected is correct subsequent to this organic man. And you’d by no means have believed that you’ll encounter this concern instantly.

“And when that occurs, your views the place you continue to really feel sorry for this particular person will change as a result of they’re clearly misplaced so deeply. However then it turns into extra:” Okay, this isn’t honest, “” Burzynska added.

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

“We’ve an entire, entire, what ought to I name it, reminiscent of deep LGBTQ -Severance on the campus the place the campus buildings or the dorms, as a substitute of the American flag, the transvlag, the LGBTQ flag [were flown]. After I go to Penn, I see that it’s like these enormous dorms of skyscrapers, and so they have the most important rainbow flag you’ll be able to think about, “mentioned Burzynska.

“So I feel you may say in a sure sense that it encourages it if an individual could be very confused about his id, after which there’s this group that accepts so loving, that you may be what you wish to be … that’s potential, sure, encourage individuals to show that approach.”

Burzynska, and the opposite feminine swimmers within the workforce at the moment had been reportedly pressured in silence and submission by Upenn managers.

A lawsuit of three different former Thomas teammates, Grace, Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski and Ellen Holmuist, claimed that college officers put strain on them to not communicate out about their ideas about Thomas who publicly got here to the workforce.

“The Upenn managers additional advised the ladies that if the ladies publicly spoke about their considerations concerning the participation of Thomas within the women workforce, the fame of those that complain that Thomas within the workforce could be contaminated with transphobia for the remainder of their lives and so they may by no means get a job,” “the lawsuit.

Upenn agrees to observe Trump’s mandate about defending ladies’s sports activities after Lia Thomas analysis

Former Upenn ladies’s swimmer Monika Burzynska (Because of Monika Burzynska)

Burzynska, raised in a liberal city from New Jersey, was already used to the consequences of sharing conservative values ​​in a liberal surroundings.

Burzynska remembers from a younger age, usually criticized as a result of he has ‘conservative or republican values’.

“I had skilled that eternally. And even Upenn I feel it’s each college for the time being, however Upenn could be very, very left leaning. And so I used to be a bit able to embrace that, that my views wouldn’t be welcomed as a result of, sure, I’ve been conservative most of my life. My religion relies on religion.”

Burzynska remembers a pointless dialog she had together with her head coach, Mike Schnur, when she was confronted with concern a couple of workforce with Thomas.

“We had this lengthy assembly, I do not know, virtually two hours. And he mentioned:” Pay attention, Monika, I perceive all of your worries. They’re all legitimate. I do not suppose considered one of them would cease you by going along with your final yr and having a profitable final yr.

“I advised him in that assembly:” What are you speaking about? Like, how is that this honest? ” And his reply was: ‘It is not honest, however in case you have issues with it, come to me … do not speak to everybody about it.

Burzynska mentioned she by no means took Schnur on that supply, within the conviction that he wouldn’t do something about it.

But she claims that she has witnessed her teammates who’ve these meaningless conversations with Schnur, from a distance.

Then the managers who reportedly put strain on the swimmers of the ladies who objected to Thomas to go to Professional-LGBTQ counseling. Burzynska mentioned she referred to as the counseling session “brainwashing conferences”.

She by no means attended the classes.

Click on right here to get the Fox Information app

Burzynska has since continued from the state of affairs and has embraced her life and profession behind it.

But she admits that components of the state of affairs have raised “trauma” in her, and she or he is grateful that President Donald Trump’s authorities has made it a precedence to create the implications for Upenn.

“These [women’s] Rights at Penn had been clearly compromised, so it is stunning that they appeared in and Trump took it so significantly, “mentioned Burzynska.

FOX Information Digital has contacted Upenn for a response to Burzynska’s statements.

Observe Fox Information Digital’s Sports cover on X, and subscribe to The Fox Information Sports activities Huddle -E-newsletter.