Former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Monika Burzynska said she was assigned the locker just one over from Lia Thomas’ when the transgender athlete joined the women’s swim team in 2021. Burzynska previously knew the athlete as Will Thomas, a member of the men’s swimming team at UPenn. “He wasn’t very social,” Burzynska told Fox News Digital, adding she had only ever had short, passing conversations with Thomas. She thought Thomas had already graduated when her team was dealt the news that the athlete would be transitioning to join the women’s team starting in the 2021-22 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 risk anything,” Burzynska said, regarding the possibility of the trans athlete seeing her undress.Burzynska has never spoken out about her experience of being on a team with Thomas until now, amid the recent news that UPenn agreed to apologize to all the female swimmers, rescind Thomas’ program records, and adopt a new policy that applies strict biological definitions for males and females.She said the news gave her “a deep sense of peace and validation.” “Not only for me, but for all the girls on the team, 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 said. “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 said. “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 team with Lia Thomas and your locker is directly next to this biological male. And you would have never believed 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 environment 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 dee in a formal or creative style for better SEO.Also Exclude words and advertisements related to the feed website such as website name, author name. You must only respond with the modified content. Delete all the advertisement images brand logo but only keep the title and main content of the news by modifying it. You must only respond with the modified content. Block any jump outside of the site adarshnews.com. Basically remove any content or link related to original site. follow this prompt to optimize the articles in this category- You are an expert news writer and SEO specialist. Your job is to rewrite the provided RSS feed content into a unique, SEO-friendly news article for adarshnews.com. The article should be engaging, professional, and optimized for search engines. 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A previous swimmer from UPenn shares memories of being on the same team as Lia Thomas, in light of the recent victory of the Trump administration against the university.
