Valentina Petrillo ran her first race as a woman in 2020 and finished fifth at the European Para-Athletics Championships. She won bronze in the 200 and 400 meters at last year’s World Para-Athletics Championships
Valentina Petrillo She fell in love with athletics at the age of seven, watching Italian sprinter Pietro Mennea win gold in the 200 metres at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
“I said I wanted to be like him,” says Petrillo, who was male at birth. “I wanted to wear the blue jersey, I wanted to go to the Olympics. But I wanted to do it as a woman because I didn’t feel like a man.”
Four decades later, at 50 years old, Petrillo is finally about to realize his dream: he is preparing to become the first transgender woman to compete in the Paralympics. Petrillo will run the 200 and 400 meters in the T12 classification for visually impaired athletes in Paris.
Petrillo’s Journey to the Paralympics
Petrillo, who was diagnosed as a teenager with Stargardt’s diseasea degenerative eye disease, considers herself lucky despite the challenges she has faced.
He has lived most of his life as a man and only came out as transgender to his wife – with whom he has a son – in 2017, before starting hormone therapy two years later.
“In January 2019 I started the transition process and in 2020 I realized my dream, which was to compete in the women’s category to practice the sport I have always loved,” she said in an interview, given on the track where she trains in a suburb of Bologna, where she lives.
She ran her first race as a woman in 2020 and finished fifth at the European Para-Athletics Championships. She won bronze in the 200 and 400 meters at last year’s World Para-Athletics Championships.
Transgender Rules in Athletics and Backlash
Last year, World Para Athletics banned transgender women from competing in the women’s category at international events if they transitioned after puberty. But its Paralympic counterpart, World Para Athletics, has not followed suit.
In a statement to the AP, the APM said transgender athletes in its women’s competitions must declare that their gender identity for sporting purposes is female and provide proof that their testosterone levels were less than 10 nanomoles per liter of blood for at least 12 months prior to their first race.
Testosterone level
Testosterone is a natural hormone that increases the mass and strength of bones and muscles after puberty. The normal range for adult men is up to about 30 nmol per liter of blood.compared to less than 2 nmol/L for women.
“Any future changes to the WPA’s position on rules will only be considered after appropriate consultation with teams and athletes and taking into account the rights and interests of all those involved,” the association said.
In a sport already grappling with the problem of how to create a level playing field for athletes with different levels of disability, some of Petrillo’s competitors argue that she has a unfair advantage.
The controversy at the World Cup
Last year, in Spain, Petrillo won – narrowly beating the Spanish athlete Melani Bergeswho finished fourth in the semi-finals of the world championships – fueled controversy. After that defeat, Berges did not qualify for the final, thus losing her chance to participate in the Paralympics.
Berges called it an “injustice”telling Spanish sports site Relevo that while we “accept and respect” transgender people, “we are no longer talking about everyday life, but about sport, which requires strength and physique.”
Il Spanish Paralympic Committee told the AP that his position had not changed since last year, when a spokesperson told Spanish media: “We respect the World Para Athletics regulations, which currently allow trans women to compete, as in the case of Valentina Petrillo, but, looking to the future, we believe it would be appropriate to move towards a uniformity of criteria with the Olympic world in relation to this matter”.
Petrillo said he somewhat understands those who question whether he should compete in the women’s category.
The Italian athlete referred to an IOC-funded study — published in April in the British Journal of Sports Medicine — that shows that transgender women are indeed physically disadvantaged in several areas, including lung function and lower-body strength.
Defending Transgender Rights
At the Paralympics, the 400m and 200m finals Women’s T12 will take place respectively September 3rd and September 7thPetrillo will be cheered on by his ex-wife, his nine-year-old son and his brother.
However, the athlete claims to have already overcome his biggest challenge, regardless of what happens when he goes down on the track at the Stade de France.
“Unfortunately, we still live in a situation where transgender people are marginalized, they will never be able to change a document like I did, they will never be able to get what they deserve, the respect they deserve,” Petrillo said. “And so my thoughts go out to them, to those who were less fortunate than me.”
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