A transgender distance runner is taking on both the NCAA and Swarthmore College in court, claiming she was illegally removed from her team after the association issued a sweeping ban on transgender athletes in women’s sports. The lawsuit, filed by long-distance runner Evie Parts, argues that the NCAA’s policy has no legal foundation because the organization is not a government body and therefore has no jurisdiction under Pennsylvania law or the federal protections of Title IX.
According to the complaint, Parts was abruptly removed from Swarthmore’s women’s track and field team on February 6, the same day the NCAA announced its new policy barring athletes who were not assigned female at birth from competing in women’s divisions. The timing was not coincidental; the NCAA’s decision came just one day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at banning transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports nationwide. At Swarthmore, administrators and coaches swiftly enforced the policy, telling Parts that she could either compete with the men’s team, run unattached, or stop competing entirely.
The lawsuit names several officials at Swarthmore, including head coach Peter Carroll, athletic director Brad Koch, and athletics administrators Christina Epps-Chiazor and Valerie Gomez. Parts alleges that under their direction she was denied access to coaching, prevented from traveling with the team, stripped of her uniform, and forced to pay her own way into meets. She was told she would only receive medical treatment if she competed with the men. This treatment, her attorneys argue, left her isolated, humiliated, and pushed into a depressive state so severe that she engaged in self-harm and at one point told a friend she no longer wanted to live.
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Her attorney, Susie Cirilli, said the case is about holding both the NCAA and Swarthmore accountable for what she described as a discriminatory and unlawful policy. “The NCAA is a private organization that issued a bigoted policy. Swarthmore College chose to follow that policy and disregard federal and state law,” Cirilli said in a statement. The NCAA has declined to comment, while Swarthmore has not yet issued a public response.
Despite the turmoil, Parts has excelled both academically and athletically. A Towson, Maryland native, she has made the honor roll four times at Swarthmore and, when reinstated to competition, proved her abilities by winning the 10,000 meters at the Bill Butler Invitational in April. She had first joined the Swarthmore team in 2020, took several seasons away, then returned in 2023 to compete in cross-country as well as indoor and outdoor track before facing her suspension this February. The lawsuit states that she was “fully reinstated” on April 11 and competed with the women’s team until her graduation in May.
Her case arrives against the backdrop of intensifying political and legal battles over transgender participation in sports. In Pennsylvania, the state Senate voted in May by a 32–18 margin to ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s and girls’ sports at both the collegiate and K–12 levels. The measure is unlikely to advance in the state’s Democratic-controlled House, but the debate has already placed transgender athletes at the center of a national culture war.
For Parts, the fight is deeply personal but also emblematic of a larger struggle. Her attorneys argue that the NCAA’s policy is not only discriminatory but unenforceable under the law, and they hope her case will set a precedent for protecting the rights of transgender athletes nationwide. Whether the courts agree could determine not only the future of her athletic career but also the broader landscape for transgender inclusion in college sports.
The post Transgender Distance Runner Files Lawsuit Against NCAA and Swarthmore After Being Barred From Women’s Track Team Following Trump’s Executive Order appeared first on TMSPN.
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