Italian sprinter Valentina Petrillo, 50, to become first transgender Paralympian

International Paralympic Committee president has called for sport to ‘unite’ on its transgender policies

An Italian sprinter is to become the first openly transgender runner to compete in women’s races at the Paralympic Games.
Valentina Petrillo, 50, who transitioned in 2019, has been selected to represent Italy in the T12 classification for athletes with visual impairments.
Prior to transitioning, Petrillo won 11 national titles in the men’s category.
“I still find it hard to believe it and I’m keeping my feet on the ground because my chance to participate in Tokyo was missed by a whisker,” Petrillo said in a statement responding to her selection on Monday. “I will only start thinking about the Paris Games once I arrive in France.”
Ahead of running in the T12 200 metres and 400m, she told BBC Sport that her participation at the Games is an “important symbol of inclusion”.
Diagnosed with Stargardt’s syndrome at the age of 14, Petrillo’s visual abilities are limited to 1/50th of the normal range.
Petrillo won two bronze medals at the World Para Athletics Championships last year.
Fairness-for-sport campaigners have previously raised concerns. But Mariuccia Quilleri, a lawyer and athlete who has represented a number of fellow athletes who oppose Petrillo’s participation, said inclusion had been chosen over fairness and “there is not much more we can do”.
The 2024 Paris Paralympics run from Aug 28 to Sept 8.
Like the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee effectively allows individual sporting bodies to decide their own guidelines on categories for women’s sport.
Last year World Athletics banned transgender women from competing in the female category at international events such as the Olympics.
However, under World Para Athletics’ rules, an athlete who is legally recognised as a woman is eligible to compete in the category their impairment qualifies them for.
Andrew Parsons, president of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), told BBC Sport that Petrillo is “welcome” in Paris under current World Para Athletics rules.
Currently, there is no unified position in sport towards transgender inclusion and, like the IOC, the IPC allows international governing bodies to set their own policies.
The governing bodies of many sports including athletics, cycling and swimming have tightened their participation rules for transgender athletes in elite women’s competitions over the last couple of years.
Critics of transgender inclusion in women’s sport say going through male puberty imbues athletes with a huge musculo-skeletal advantage that transition does not mitigate.
LGBT advocacy groups say excluding trans athletes amounts to discrimination and that not enough research has been done into the impact of transition on athletic performance.
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