Transgender student runner sues Swarthmore track, NCAA

This year has been one in which trans issues have been at the forefront, especially given President Donald Trump’s executive order banning trans athletes from competing in women’s sports. On Thursday, Evelyn “Evie” Parts, a long-distance runner on Swarthmore College’s track and cross-country teams from 2023 to 2025, filed a lawsuit saying the NCAA was “bigoted” in its actions. File Photo (2025) by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 18 (UPI) — A former transgender athlete is suing Swarthmore College and the NCAA after her brief removal from the school’s track and field team for women.

Evelyn “Evie” Parts, a long-distance runner on Swarthmore’s track and cross-country teams from 2023 until her 2025 graduation, filed a lawsuit Thursday in Pennsylvania’s Eastern District, saying the NCAA was “bigoted” and subjected trans women to “segregation and ridicule.”

The suit against its athletic department and NCAA added that Swarthmore officials “blatantly” denied her the right to compete, which was, according to the lawsuit, “outrageous, reckless and wanton misconduct in violation of state and federal” Title IX rights.

It alleged Swarthmore coaching staff pushed Parts into “such a depressive state that she engaged in self-harm and in one moment told a friend that she wanted to kill herself,” court documents state.

Parts transitioned as a junior in high school and enrolled in 2020 at Swarthmore near Philadelphia.

The suit comes after February’s executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump that banned transgender women from competing in women’s sports.

On Friday, a lawyer for Parts said they “stand by the allegations in the complaint.”

“The NCAA is a private organization that issued a bigoted policy,” attorney Susan Cirilli told ESPN.

“Swarthmore chose to follow that policy and disregard federal and state law,” Cirilli added.

In a statement, the Pennsylvania college said it “deeply values our transgender community members and the many ways they enrich campus life,” adding that school officials “worked to support” Parts in a time of “rapidly evolving guidance, while balancing the ability for other members of the women’s track team to compete in NCAA events.”

“We recognize that this is an especially difficult and painful time for members of the transgender community, including student-athletes,” school officials said in their statement.

Swarthmore stated given the pending litigation that the school “will not comment any further” on the matter.

Parts’ complaint requests punitive damages and reimbursement for time as an unattached athlete.