Former UPenn swimmer reflects on being teammates with Lia Thomas amid Trump admin victory over university

Former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Monika Burzynska reported she was assigned the locker next to Lia Thomas when the transgender athlete joined the women's swim association in Burzynska previously knew the athlete as Will Thomas a member of the men's swimming group at UPenn He wasn't very social Burzynska notified Fox News Digital adding she had only ever had short passing conversations with Thomas She thought Thomas had already graduated when her organization was dealt the news that the athlete would be transitioning to join the women's association starting in the - season CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS COMWhen that season eventually began and Thomas became a fixture in the women's locker room Burzynska often retreated to the corner of the room to change Other times Burzynska timed exactly when she changed to coincide with when Thomas showered Eventually Burzynska opted to only change in the stalls or in the family locker across the hall Around Lia I wasn't going to pitfall anything Burzynska stated regarding the possibility of the trans athlete seeing her undress Burzynska has never spoken out about her experience of being on a squad with Thomas until now amid the latest news that UPenn agreed to apologize to all the female swimmers rescind Thomas' venture records and adopt a new approach that applies strict biological definitions for males and females She declared the news gave her a deep sense of peace and validation Not only for me but for all the girls on the association for all the girls in the swim world and in the sport world And I think this decision it brought back at least for me a sense of fairness that had been lost Burzynska explained Women's records belong to women and that protecting the integrity of women's sports still matters Still the memories of what Burzynska and others had to endure lingers Burzynska identifies as someone with conservative values but says she grew up feeling compassion for transgender people Her views changed when she was placed next to Thomas in the locker room I thought it must be terrible to feel like you're trapped in the wrong body Just be so out of touch with who you really are Burzynska declared You have these issues that are from afar and you never really quite think they're going to touch you personally until you're on a organization with Lia Thomas and your locker is directly next to this biological male And you would have never deduced that you'd be facing this issue directly And then when that happens your views change where you still feel sorry for this person because they're clearly so deeply lost But then it turns into more OK this is not fair Burzynska added As a native of Colonia New Jersey Burzynska explained that she grew up in a liberal surroundings with prominent pro-LGBTQ sentiment Those values followed her when she went to UPenn in the deep blue city of Philadelphia We have a very very how should I call it like deep LGBTQ presence on campus where the campus buildings or the dormitories rather than flying the U S flag the trans flag the LGBTQ flag were flown Whenever I visit Penn I see it's like this huge skyscraper dorm and they have the biggest rainbow flag you could imagine Burzynska mentioned So I guess in a sense you could say it encourages it if a person is very confused about their identity and then there's this group that seems so accepting so loving telling you could be whatever you want to be that might kind of yeah encourage people to turn that way Burzynska and the other female swimmers on the gang at the time were allegedly coerced into silence and submission by UPenn administrators A lawsuit by three other former Thomas teammates Grace Estabrook Margot Kaczorowski and Ellen Holmquist alleged that university functionaries pressured them not to speak out about their thoughts on Thomas joining the unit publicly The UPenn administrators went on to tell the women that if the women spoke publicly about their concerns about Thomas participation on the Women s Squad the reputation of those complaining about Thomas being on the band would be tainted with transphobia for the rest of their lives and they would likely never be able to get a job the lawsuit alleged UPENN AGREES TO FOLLOW TRUMP'S MANDATE ON PROTECTING WOMEN'S SPORTS AFTER LIA THOMAS INVESTIGATIONBurzynska having grown up in a liberal New Jersey town was already accustomed to the consequences of sharing conservative values in a liberal setting Burzynska recalls from a young age often being criticized for having conservative or Republican values I had been experiencing that forever And even UPenn I think it's every university at this point but UPenn is very very left-leaning And so I was kind of ready to embrace that that my views wouldn't be welcomed because yeah I've been conservative majority of my life My beliefs are grounded in faith Burzynska recalls a futile conversation she had with her head coach Mike Schnur when she confronted him with concerns about being on a organization with Thomas We had this long meeting I don't know almost two hours long And he reported 'Listen Monika I understand all your concerns They're all valid I don't think any of them would deter you from continuing onto your senior year and having a flourishing senior year I think the one thing that would deter you is that Lia is changing in your locker room and there's nothing you could do about it ' Burzynska mentioned I communicated him in that meeting What are you talking about Like how is this fair And his response was 'It's not fair but if you have any issues with it come to me Don't talk about it with everyone else Come to me We'll talk through it' Burzynska mentioned she never took Schnur up on that offer believing that he wouldn't do anything about it anyway Still she alleges she witnessed her teammates having those futile conversations with Schnur from a distance Then came the administrators that allegedly pressured the women's swimmers who objected to Thomas to go to pro-LGBTQ counseling Burzynska mentioned she called the counseling session brainwashing meetings She never attended the sessions Burzynska has since moved on from the situation and has embraced her life and career beyond it Still she admits that parts of the situation instilled trauma in her and she is grateful that President Donald Trump's administration made it a priority to instill consequences on UPenn Those women's rights at Penn were clearly compromised so it's amazing that they looked into it and Trump took it so seriously Burzynska stated Fox News Digital has reached out to UPenn for a response to Burzynska's statements Follow Fox News Digital s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter