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The former swimmer of the University of Pennsylvania, Monika Burzynska, said she was assigned the locker with Lia Thomas when the transgender athlete joined the female swimming team in 2021. Burzynska previously knew the athlete as well as Will Thomas, a member of the men’s bathroom team in UPENN.
“It was not very social,” Burzynska told Pak Gazette Digital, and added that he had only had short and raisin conversations with Thomas.
She thought that Thomas had already graduated when her team received the news that the athlete would be making the transition to join the women’s team from the 2021-22 season.
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The swimmer of the University of Pennsylvania, Lia Thomas, poses with her teammates Hannah Kannan, Camryn Carter and Margot Kaczorowski after winning the 400 -yards freestyle relay during the swimming and diving championship for women Ivy League on February 19, 2022, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Kathryn Riley/Getty Images)
When that season finally began, and Thomas became a fixed element in the female costume, Burzynska often retired to the corner of the room to change. Other times, Burzynska timed exactly when he changed to coincide when Thomas shower. Finally, Burzynska chose to change alone in the posts or in the family locker on the other side of the hall.
“Around Lia, I was not going to risk anything,” Burzynska said, regarding the possibility that the athlete trans would see nudity.
Burzynska has never talked about his experience of being in a team with Thomas so far, in the midst of the recent news that Upenn agreed to apologize with all the swimmers, terminate the records of the Thomas program and adopt a new policy that applies strict biological definitions for men and women.
She said the news gave her “a deep sense of peace and validation.”
“Not only for me, but for all the girls of the team, for all the girls in the world of swimming and in the world of sport. And I think this decision brought, at least for me, a sense of justice that was lost,” said Burzynska. “Women’s records belong to women and to protect the integrity of women’s sports is still important.”
Even so, the memories of what Burzynska and others had to endure the persistent.
Burzynska identifies as someone with conservative values, but says he grew up feeling “compassion” for transgender people. His views changed when they placed it next to Thomas in the locker room.
“I thought it should be terrible to feel that you are caught in the wrong body. I only know so out of contact with who you really are,” Burzynska said. “You have these problems that are far and you never think that they will touch you personally until you are in a team with Lia Thomas and your locker is directly next to this biological man. And you would never have believed that you would face this problem directly.
“And then, when that happens, their views change where you still feel sorry for this person because they are clearly deeply lost. But then it becomes more, ‘ok, this is not fair,” Burzynska added.
As a native of Colonia, New Jersey, Burzynska explained that he grew up in a liberal environment with an outstanding pro-LGBTQ feeling. These 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, as a deep LGBTQ presence on the campus, where campus buildings or bedrooms, instead of flying the flag of the United States, the trans flag, the LGBTQ flag [were flown]. Every time I visit Penn, I see that it is like this huge skyscraper bedroom, and they have the largest rainbow flag that you can imagine, “Burzynska said.
“So I suppose that, in a sense, one could say that it encourages him if a person is very confused about his identity, and then this group that seems so accepted, so loving, telling him that it could be what you want to be … that could, yes, encourage the people to return that way.”
Burzynska, and the other swimmers in the team at that time, were supposedly forced to silence and submission by UPENN administrators.
A demand for three other teammates from Thomas, Grace, Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski and Ellen Holmquist, alleged that university officials pressed them so they would not talk about their thoughts about Thomas publicly join the team.
“UPENN administrators continued to tell women that if women talk publicly about their concerns about Thomas’ participation in the women’s team, the reputation of those who complain that Thomas in the team would be contaminated with transphobia for the rest of their lives and probably could never get a job,” said the demand.
UPENN agrees to follow Trump’s mandate on the protection of women’s sports after Lia Thomas’s research
Former Upenn Women’s Swindon Monika Burzynska (Courtesy of Monika Burzynska)
Burzynska, having grown up in a liberal city in New Jersey, was already used to the consequences of sharing conservative values in a liberal environment.
Burzynska remembers, from an early age, often criticized for having “conservative or republican values.”
“I had been experiencing that forever. And even Upenn, I think it’s all universities at this time, but Upenn is very, very left.
Burzynska remembers a useless conversation he had with his chief coach, Mike Schnur, when he faced him with worries about being in a team with Thomas.
“We had this long meeting, I don’t know, almost two hours. And he said: ‘Listen, Monika, I understand all your concerns. They are all valid. I don’t think any of them dissuade you to continue in your last year and have a successful last year.
“I told him at that meeting: ‘What are you talking about? How is this fair?’ And his answer was: “It is not fair, but if you have any problem, come to me … Do not talk about that with everyone else.
Burzynska said he never took Schnur in that offer, believing that he would do nothing about anyway.
Even so, he alleges that he witnessed that his teammates had those useless conversations with Schnur, from a distance.
Then came the administrators who allegedly pressed the swimmers of the women who opposed Thomas to go to pro-LGBTQ advice. Burzynska said he called the advice session “brainwashing meetings.”
She never attended the sessions.
Since then, Burzynska has gone from the situation and has accepted his life and career beyond.
Even so, he admits that parts of the situation instilled “trauma” in it, and is grateful that the administration of President Donald Trump has made a priority to instill consequences in UPENN.
“Those [women’s] The rights in Penn were clearly committed, so it is surprising that they have investigated him and Trump took it so seriously, “Burzynska said.
Pak Gazette Digital has communicated with UPENN for a response to Burzynska’s statements.
