Paralympics to feature transgender athlete for first time as 50-year-old sprinter cleared to compete
Valentina Petrillo will become the first transgender athlete to compete at the Paralympics
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Valentina Petrillo will become the first openly transgender athlete to compete at the Paraylmpics this month after being selected by Italy for the major event.
The 50-year-old began living as a woman in 2018 and began hormone therapy a few months later to begin the transition.
She came close to making the Italian Paralympics team in 2021 for the Tokyo Games, but wasn't selected for their roster.
That was used as fuel by Petrillo to target the Paris Paralympics and she won two bronze medals at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships.
It saw Petrillo become the first transgender athlete to win a track and field medal on a global stage.
Valentina Petrillo will become the first transgender athlete to compete at the Paralympics
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Her achievement drew widespread criticism with Canada's former Olympic head coach, Peter Eriksen, branding it 'shocking'.
Britain's third-fastest female marathon runner Mara Yamauchi also questioned 'How many 49-year-olds would win medals at world level?'
Petrillo competes in the women's T12 classification - for athletes with visual impairment - and won gold in the 100m, 200m and 400m events at the 2021 Italian Paralympic Championships.
It's now been confirmed that Petrillo will compete in the T12 200m and 400m at the Paris Paralympics.
International Paralympic Committee (IPC) president, Andrew Parsons, has said that he's 'prepared for the criticism' he's likely to face for clearing Petrillo to compete.
He added: "But again we need to respect our rules, we cannot disrespect our rules. So sometimes as an individual I think one way or another, but we need to follow our constitution, we need to follow our own rules and in the specific sports the rules of the international federations need to be respected.
"So for the moment World Para Athletics rules allow her to compete, so she will be welcome as any other athlete.
"I think it is just fair that we treat [transgender athletes] respectfully. But I do think science should give us the answer, because we also want to be fair with the other athletes in the field of play. It is a very difficult question. And science hopefully will be able to give us the answer. And what I would like to see in the future is that the whole of sport has a united position on it."
Petrillo, who won 11 national titles as a male between 2015 and 2018, has said that she 'deserves this selection'.
Valentina Petrillo won two bronze medals at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships
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"I have been waiting for this day for three years and in these past three years I have done everything possible to earn it," she told BBC.
"I deserve this selection and I want to thank the Italian Paralympic Federation and the Italian Paralympic Committee for having always believed in me, above all as a person as well as an athlete.
"The historic value of being the first transgender woman to compete at the Paralympics is an important symbol of inclusion."
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IPC president Andrew Parsons has defended the inclusion of Valentina Petrillo
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Petrillo added: "This is not a lifestyle choice for me, this is who I am.
"And the way I am, like all transgender people who do not feel they belong to their biological gender, should not be discriminated against in the same way that race, religion or political ideology should not be discriminated against.
"And sport that imposes rules based on a binary way of thinking does not factor this in. It is sport that has to find a solution and excluding transgender athletes is clearly not that solution.
"Ultimately, in the seven years in which transgender athletes have been able to compete in the female category, the number of instances in which they have stood out for their sporting results have been very few and far between."