Valentina Petrillo is set to become the first openly transgender athlete to compete in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. The visually-impaired sprinter was selected to represent Italy in the T12 200 and 400 meter races.
The 50 year old, who transitioned in 2019, has spoken out against critics. She told BBC Sport that her participation is “an important symbol of inclusion.”
“This is not a lifestyle choice for me,” she said. “This is who I am.”
Rules on transgender inclusion differ significantly from World Athletics, which acts as an international sports governing body, and World Para Athletics, which specifically oversees the Paralympics for athletes with physical disabilities.
World Athletics has completely banned trans women from competing in the female category at international events. World Para Athletes, however, allows anyone who is legally recognized as a woman to compete in the female category. Because Petrillo is going through Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), her testerone level is well below the “normal” level for cis women, and she is eligible to compete.
“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. “[T]he 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.”
Prior to her transition, Petrillo won 11 national titles in the male T12 category between 2015 and 2018. Since her transition, she achieved two bronze medals in the World Para Athletics Championships.
Andrew Parsons, President of the International Paralympic Committee, told BBC he wants the sporting world to come up with a “united position” on transgender inclusion. However, he said Petrillo is as “welcome as any other athlete”, and the IPC is “prepared for criticism” when she plays.
“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,” said Petrillo.
The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will kick off on August 28 and last through September 8.
