EXCLUSIVE: Former University of Pennsylvania Swimmer Grace Estabrook was one of the many young women who shared a pool and changing room with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in the 2021-22 season.

From 2019, when she was first told that Thomas would join her team until her senior year in 2022, Estabrook claimed she was repeatedly pressed by the university not to oppose Thomas’ inclusion on the team. Estabrook told Pakinomist digital that administrators tried to convince her that she would never get a job or get into the degree school if she spoke against it and that every question she had with the situation was because she had a “psychological problem.”

And between practice and meetings that made her feel “uncomfortable” and “powerless,” Estabrook says she also witnessed the mainstream media celebrating Thomas as a civil rights icon and even being nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year Award.

But now, in 2025, Estabrook is one of three former Upenn swimmers who have brought a lawsuit against the university, the Ivy League and NCAA over its handling of the situation as the tide of the question turns into the court.

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Pakinomist Digital reached out to Upenn to comment.

Recent data suggests that the vast majority of Americans are now against trans athletes in women’s sports. NCAA recently changed its policy to prevent them from competing in the women’s category after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to tackle the question last Wednesday.

Still, many Democrats are continuing to fight for trans -cluttering in women’s and girls’ sports, and several states have not complied with Trump’s order.

For Estabrook, who says she lived through the experience of changing her clothes with Thomas in space and being threatened not to complain about it, the idea of ​​elected officials who are still fighting for a case that ensures other women experiencing what she did is “depressing.”

“It’s just really depressing,” Estabrook said. “I just don’t know why someone wants to perpetuate abuse for women on big scales like this. I think that’s why we do what we do. That’s because we want a clear court decision that will help institutions with Being able to set clear policies to make sure this never happens again.

Estabrok’s journey throughout the situation with Upenn has shown frequent “depressing” moments.

Her closet was only a few meters away from Thomas in the dressing room and forced her to return to a corner for the sake of her own comfort.

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“I wanted kind of back in a corner that had low visibility and just try to change as fast as I could, and I had other teammates who would go into the bathroom stalls and change in there,” Estabrook said.

“We were the ones who were forced to hide emotionally and psychologically, and it was just incredibly stressful.

Estabrook added that the situation put “incredibly” stress on both her mind and body and it disturbed her swimming ability.

The positive media coverage of Thomas was the insulting cherry at the top of the situation of Estabrook. She said that many times when she and her teammates traveled to a meeting, they had not only had to tackle Thomas’s anxiety in their space, but also a horde journalists there to cover the trans athlete in a positive light.

“I just remember I felt,” this is so stranger, “Estabrook said. “It just felt like it was all this celebration of Thomas and all transgender ideology movement.”

“All the media I remember I was seeing or reading at the time, Thomas celebrated like this groundbreaking figure head in the transking community … there was just such a celebration of it that it was really pushed into our faces and coercion us to accept it. ”

Estabrook said the hardest moment of the experience came on the 2022 Ivy League Championships. She hoped that Thomas would be guided unjustly to participate. However, Ivy League Thomas Simber. Thomas ultimately put pool registers in each event that the athlete competed in and topped Victor’s podium four times.

Thomas continued to set up a similar performance at the 2022 NCAA championships. There, Thomas ended up in a notorious bond with former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines. This tie ultimately triggered the seeds of change that gave Estabrook and countless other women hope when the experience caused Gaines to speak and become a prominent spokesman for women’s athletes seeking protection against trans clutter.

Previous Upenn -Swimming Grace Estabrook (Grace Estabrook)

“I was just so grateful for her courage,” Estabrook said. “I feel really authorized by the work that Riley Gaines has done and to see women jumping on the same train and starting to speak out. … it allowed me to be able to do the same.”

More hope came over the past year after Trump promised during a Pakinomist City Hall interview in October that if he was elected, he would ban trans athletes in women’s sports. Trump won the election, and exit votes suggested that the issue of Trans -Inclusion played a prominent role in the decision of many moderate voters.

Trump quickly gave up well on his promise and signed “No Men Men In Women’s Sports” executive order last Wednesday. For Estabrook, it is to see this come to execution far to confirm her political conviction.

“I was very excited to hear it and even more excited when it became a reality last week so soon after he took office,” Estabrok said. “It’s just very encouraging to see that we have a president who is just so supportive to us and also sees this in accordance with reality.”

Estabrok’s trial filed with former teammates Ellen Holmquist and Margot Kaczorowski seeks to have all Thomas’ records and accolades as a woman swimming.

In addition to Estabrok’s trial, Trump’s Department of Education has launched a study of potential violations of title IX, which took place in Upenn and has also advised NCAA to discard Thomas’ recognitions in the women’s category.