A former Swarthmore College athlete is suing her alma mater, members of its athletic department and the NCAA after she was briefly removed from participating on the school’s women’s track and field team because she is transgender. 

Evie Parts, a long-distance runner who competed for Swarthmore’s women’s cross-country and track and field teams from 2023 until her graduation in 2025, claims the school and the NCAA discriminated against her and violated her Title IX rights in ousting her from the team in February, after the NCAA issued a policy barring transgender women from participating in women’s college sports in response to an executive order from President Trump. 

Parts’s lawsuit, filed Thursday in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, says the NCAA policy is “bigoted” and subjects transgender women “to segregation and ridicule.” Swarthmore, the lawsuit states, “blatantly” denied Parts her right to compete, constituting “outrageous, reckless and wanton misconduct in violation of state and federal law.” 

Through its coaching staff, Swarthmore 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,” the lawsuit alleges. 

In an emailed statement, Swarthmore said it “deeply values our transgender community members and the many ways they enrich campus life.” 

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

“Given the pending litigation, we will not comment any further,” Swarthmore said. 

The NCAA did not return a request for comment. 

According to Parts’s lawsuit, she transitioned as a junior in high school and enrolled at Swarthmore in 2020. She “fully participated” as a member of the school’s varsity women’s cross-country and track and field teams during her first year, but there were no competitions because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Parts chose not to compete in 2021 and 2022 while preparing for and recovering from gender-affirmation surgery. She rejoined the women’s cross-country team in 2023 but suffered a running-related injury and only competed in two meets. She competed in just one meet during the winter indoor track season because of the same injury, and in four meets during the spring outdoor track season. 

In 2024, Parts competed as a member of the women’s cross-country team and was named one of four captains of the women’s track team that winter. After the NCAA instituted its new policy for transgender athletes on Feb. 6, Swarthmore gave Parts two options: run for the men’s team or run unattached to the college, forgoing her ability to receive coaching, medical or financial support from Swarthmore. 

Parts competed unattached for two meets before the school fully reinstated her as a member of the women’s track team on April 11, according to the lawsuit. She raced in three meets before her graduation in May. 

The complaint requests that Parts be reimbursed for the money she spent as an unattached athlete, as well as consequential and punitive damages.