Who is Valentina Petrillo? The first transgender woman in the Paralympics

NEW DELHI: Valentina Petrillo, a 50-year-old Italian athlete, is poised to make history as the first transgender woman to participate in the Paralympics. She will compete in the 200 and 400 meters events in the T12 category for visually impaired athletes at the upcoming Paris Games.

Petrillo was diagnosed with Stargardt disease, a progressive eye condition, during her teenage years.

For most of her life, Petrillo lived as a man, only revealing her transgender identity to her wife, with whom she has a son, in 2017. Two years later, she started hormone therapy.

In an interview at a training track near her home in Bologna, she expressed, “Yes, I have problems with my vision, I’m partially sighted, I’m trans – and let’s say that’s not the best in our Italy, being trans – but I am a happy person.”

Petrillo’s love for athletics began at the age of 7 when she watched Italian sprinter Pietro Mennea secure a gold medal in the 200 meters at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. “I wanted to put on the blue (Italy) shirt, I wanted to go to the Olympics. But — and there was a but — I wanted to do it as a woman because I didn’t feel like a man, I didn’t feel like myself.”

Although World Athletics banned transgender women who transitioned after puberty from competing in the female category at the international level last year, World Para Athletics (WPA) has not implemented a similar policy.

Petrillo shared, “I began transitioning in 2019 and in 2020 I realized my dream, which was to race in the female category, to do the sport that I had always loved doing.”

She added, “I got to 50 before it came true … we all have the right to a second choice of life, a second chance.”

Valentina Petrillo’s participation in the Paralympics follows the contentious debate surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif at the Paris Olympics, despite Khelif being born a woman. The World Para Athletics (WPA) mandates that transgender athletes competing in women’s events must declare their gender identity as female for sporting purposes and provide evidence of maintaining testosterone levels below 10 nanomoles per liter of blood for at least 12 months before their first competition.

Testosterone, a natural hormone, contributes to increased bone and muscle mass and strength after puberty. Adult males typically have testosterone levels up to about 30 nmol/L, while women’s levels are generally below 2 nmol/L.

Although Petrillo’s participation indicates that she met the required criteria, her presence in Paris has not been without criticism. At the world championships, where she placed fourth in the semifinal,

Spanish athlete Melani Berges expressed her disappointment, stating that while she “accepts and respects” transgender people, “we are no longer talking about daily life, we are talking about sport, which requires strength, a physique.”

Berges felt it was an “injustice” that she was denied a chance to reach the Paralympics. German T12 sprinter Katrin Mueller-Rottgardt has also voiced concerns in the German tabloid Bild.

Petrillo acknowledged that she understands the doubts surrounding her participation in the female category to some extent. “I have asked myself. But Valentina, if you were a biological woman and you saw a Valentina racing with you, what would you think?’ And I responded to myself that I would also have some doubts,” she said.

“But then through my experiences and what I learned I can state clearly … that it doesn’t mean that because I was born a man that I will be stronger than a woman.” said Valentina Petrillo as quoted by AP.

Courtesy : TOI

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