VALENTINA PETRILLO WILL become the first openly transgender athlete to compete at the Paralympics and wants to be the “first of many” when the Italian sprinter debuts at the Games in Paris.

Petrillo will realise a childhood dream at 50 years old when she walks out onto the Stade de France track to compete in the 400 metres in the T12 category for visually impaired athletes.

In an interview with AFP, Petrillo says that it will be “the most important moment of my sporting career” after just missing out on the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago.

Petrillo has long suffered from Stargardt disease, a genetic retinal condition which leads to progressive loss of vision, and since missing out on Japan has been gunning for Paris.

However not competing in Tokyo was less painful than when failing to qualify for the 1996 Paralympics, some time before what she calls her “coming out” as a woman in 2017.

“When I was a man I wasn’t myself, I ran with the handbrake on and I wasn’t happy. Certainly not as happy as I am now, even if I’m a little bit older,” says Petrillo.

After representing Italy in blind football, Petrillo reconnected with her first passion, the 200 metres, which she fell in love with thanks to former Olympic champion and world record holder Pietro Mennea, and the 400 metres.

Hormone treatment allowed her to cut testosterone levels by four in order to comply with international eligibility regulations for women’s para-athletics events.

World Athletics banned transgender athletes from women’s competitions last year, but World Para Athletics rules allow a person legally recognised as a woman to compete in the category their impairment qualifies them for.

After officially becoming a woman in the eyes of the Italian state in 2023, Petrillo won bronze in both her favoured distances at the World Para Athletics Championships in the French capital and she has ambitious goals for the upcoming Games.

“I want to improve my personal bests, 25.77 seconds in the 200m and 58.01sec in the 400m. If I manage that then a medal might not be far away,” says Petrillo.

But she knows that more than her on-track performance, her appearance in Paris, which comes three years after weightlifter Laurel Hubbard became the first transgender athlete to participate in the Olympics, will garner a different kind of attention.

She expects criticism and cyberbullying of the sort experienced by boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting whose gold medals at the recent Paris Olympics were overshadowed by a gender controversy.

“I know I’m going to be criticised, that people won’t understand why I’m doing this,” she says.

“But I’m here, I’ve fought for years to get here and I’m not scared. I am who I am.”

Petrillo sees herself as a symbol for transgender people in sport, and not only in Italy where an ultra-conservative government has repeatedly denounced what it calls “gender ideology” and the “LGBT lobby”.

“I often say that if I’ve done it, others can do it,” she says.

“I hope to be the first of many, a point of reference for others, a source of inspiration. My experience can be useful to other people, whether or not they have visual disabilities or if they are trans or not.”

Petrillo can count on the support of family as she insists her ageing father has always supported her, and will be cheered on at the Stade de France by her children, brother and ex-wife.

“Im lucky, I’m going to the thing I love the most, what I’ve always dreamed of doing: running in a stadium.”

– © AFP 2024