Who is Lia Thomas? Brett Cooper calls athletes’ swim titles reportedly being stripped a “massive, massive win”

American conservative political commentator and actress, Brett Cooper, on her YouTube channel, reflected on trans gender athlete Lia Thomas’ swim titles being stripped. The University of Pennsylvania, as per a BBC News report on July 2, agreed to block transgender athletes from competing in women's sports.

On Tuesday, July 8, UPenn reportedly modified a trio of school records set by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. This came after a federal civil rights investigation centred on the former swimmer was conducted.

The investigation led to the U.S. Department of Education announcing the voluntary agreement that the university had violated Title IX by allowing Lia to compete in women's events during the 2021–2022 season.

On Monday, July 7, 2025, Brett Cooper discussed the recent events surrounding Lia Thomas on her The Betty Cooper Show.

“This is a massive, massive, massive win for common sense, for protecting young women, for protecting biology. Like, that's really what it is. Like, protecting the ability to speak truth and be real about biology and the differences between men and women.”

Meanwhile, Lia Thomas was born male at birth in 1999 in Austin, Texas. According to the Abilene Reporter News, Lia came out as a trans woman in 2019. She began swimming on the men's team at the University of Pennsylvania in 2017. The athlete reportedly began participating in competitive swimming at a young age.

Notably, Brett Cooper in her YouTube video discussed that the university also sent out personalized apologies to every young woman who competed against the transgender athlete.

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Brett Cooper praises President Trump for helping settle Lia Thomas’ UPenn transgender case

The YouTube personality in her YouTube video also thanked US President Trump and his administration for helping women athletes who had to be in a locker room with and change next to biological men.

“I am so grateful to Trump and his administration for keeping good on his promises to protect us. He has been doing this since the beginning, since he got inaugurated in January. He had two executive orders defending women from gender ideology extremism, and then the second one was keeping men out of women's sports."

Brett Cooper added,

"He doubled down on all of this by freezing federal funding to UPEN to force them to come to the table, which, of course, is a classic Trump art of the deal. But I'm so glad that it worked out."

Meanwhile, according to USA Today, the Trump administration has released $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania, which they had previously frozen for months. This came after the school reached an agreement with the federal government on handling transgender athletes in female sports teams.

According to Forbes, the university will reportedly strip transgender swimmer Lia Thomas of her titles and recognitions. UPenn said it would also update the records set during the 2021–22 season and ban trans athletes from women’s sports.

Lia, who wasn't assigned female at birth, won a national title while competing in 2022. After she was allowed to compete in women's sports, the federal government froze the funds in March. The government alleged the university had violated the primary law governing sex discrimination at schools, Title IX.

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Meanwhile, Lia Thomas from the University of Pennsylvania became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship. She joined the women's team for the 2021–2022 season after beginning hormone replacement therapy in 2019.