LMonday, September 2, 2024. On this date, Valentina Petrillo entered the history of Paralympism, and even of sport. This 50-year-old Italian became the first transgender sprinter to participate in the Paris Games. In the 400 meters T12, visually impaired category, the athlete achieved her best time in 57 seconds 58 hundredths… without managing to reach the final.
Regardless, the runner told AFP that that day was “the most important moment of [sa] sporting career”, thus fulfilling his “childhood dream”. And he still has a chance to shine by participating, on Friday, in the 200 meters T12 event.
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“I didn’t feel like myself”
At the time of her race, the Italian had another date in mind: July 28, 1980. On that day, during the Moscow Olympic Games, Pietro Mennea – who died 10 years ago – set off and surpassed all his competitors. In the 200 meters, the sprinter won the gold medal. After such a performance, the Italian dodged the Russian security service and began his lap of the track – banned that year – brandishing his index finger to the sky. The “finger of God,” he called it at the time.
A year earlier, at the Summer Universiade in Mexico, the same champion had broken the world record by finishing his race in 19 seconds and 72 hundredths, a performance that had not been equaled for seventeen years, before the American […] Read more
