Sprinter set to be first transgender Paralympian

Valentina Petrillo is set to become the first openly transgender athlete to compete at the Paralympic Games, having been selected to represent Italy in Para-athletics in Paris.

The 50-year-old sprinter – who competes in the women’s T12 classification, for athletes with visual impairments – transitioned in 2019.

Petrillo, who will run in the T12 200m and 400m, told BBC Sport that her participation at the Games would be an “important symbol of inclusion”.

But Mariuccia Quilleri, a lawyer and athlete who has represented a number of fellow athletes who oppose Petrillo’s participation in women’s races, said inclusion had been chosen over fairness and “there is not much more we can do”.

Last year, Petrillo won two bronze medals at the World Para Athletics Championships.

The Paralympic Games run from 28 August to 8 September.

Andrew Parsons, president of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), told BBC Sport that while Petrillo would be “welcome” in Paris under current World Para Athletics policies, he wants to see the sporting world “unite” on its transgender policies.

Currently, there is no unified position in sport towards transgender inclusion.

The IPC allows international sport governing bodies to set their own policies.

There are significant differences between World Athletics’ policies and those of World Para Athletics.

World Athletics has banned transgender women from competing in the female category at international events. Its president, Lord Coe, said the decision was to “maintain fairness for female athletes above all other consideration”.

Under World Para Athletics’ rules, a person who is legally recognised as a woman is eligible to compete in the category their impairment qualifies them for.

The rules go on to say that “World Para Athletics will deal with any cases involving transgender athletes in accordance with the International Olympic Committee’s transgender guidelines (as amended by the IOC from time to time) and any applicable World Para Athletics regulations.”

Parsons said last year that the IPC was not considering a ruling across all Paralympic sports.

But, in an interview in Paris last weekend [10 August], he said he was only comfortable with that stance “for the moment”.

“I do think that the sport movement has to, guided by science, come up with better answers for these situations and for transgender athletes,” Parsons said.

“We need to, based on science, have a better and probably a united answer to this population.

“We need to come up with a valid, solid, sound answer for that population.”

Asked if he was prepared for criticism of the IPC when Petrillo competes, he said: “I am prepared for the criticism.

“But again we need to respect our rules, we cannot disrespect our rules. So sometimes as an individual I think one way or another, but we need to follow our constitution, we need to follow our own rules and in the specific sports the rules of the international federations need to be respected.

“So for the moment World Para Athletics rules allow her to compete, so she will be welcome as any other athlete.”

He added: “I think it is just fair that we treat [transgender athletes] respectfully. But I do think science should give us the answer, because we also want to be fair with the other athletes in the field of play. It is a very difficult question. And science hopefully will be able to give us the answer. And what I would like to see in the future is that the whole of sport has a united position on it.”

Who is Petrillo?

In a previous interview with the BBC, Petrillo said she knew she was a woman from as young as nine.

At the age of 14, Petrillo was diagnosed with stargardt disease, a degenerative eye condition.

Petrillo won 11 national titles in the male T12 category for athletes with visual impairment between 2015 and 2018.

With her wife’s support, in 2018 she started living as a woman, and in January 2019 she began hormone therapy.

“My metabolism has changed,” she previously told the BBC.

“I’m not the energetic person I was. In the first months of transition I put on 10kg. I can’t eat the way I did before, I became anaemic, my haemoglobin is low, I’m always cold, I don’t have the same physical strength, my sleep isn’t what it was, I have mood swings.

“I’m not the same as before.”

She said her times became slower too, adding: “As a sportsperson, to accept that you won’t go as fast as before is difficult. I had to accept this compromise, because it is a compromise, for my happiness.”

However, she has won medals at both World Para Athletics Championships and National Para Championships since transitioning, and has competed in masters athletics events against non-disabled women.

Sports scientist Professor Ross Tucker said: “Male advantage is created through development and so it is essentially laid down over years and years of exposure to testosterone. The solution that sport has tried to come up with is to say well if the source of that advantage is testosterone then let’s lower it and then the athlete is free to compete.

“But that doesn’t work because there is an asymmetry there because some of the changes that testosterone causes, like the increased muscle mass, increased strength, the shape and size of the skeleton, those changes don’t go away. There are some, like haemoglobin levels, certain elements of the cardiovascular system that may go away.

“But the strength advantages, all the evidence that exists suggests that even when you remove testosterone in an adult those advantages continue to exist in that person. So therefore sport has to realise that it can’t take away that male advantage, reduce it slightly yes, but certainly it doesn’t get removed. And the only conclusion you can then draw is that the person still has male advantage even when their testosterone is lower.”

Asked for her reaction to her Paralympics selection, Petrillo told BBC Sport: “I have been waiting for this day for three years and in these past three years I have done everything possible to earn it.

“I deserve this selection and I want to thank the Italian Paralympic Federation and the Italian Paralympic Committee for having always believed in me, above all as a person as well as an athlete.

“The historic value of being the first transgender woman to compete at the Paralympics is an important symbol of inclusion.”

Petrillo said “everyone will have their questions” but only a “minority” will understand her story.

Asked what she would say to those who do not agree with her presence in Paris and believe it to be unfair, Petrillo said: “This is not a lifestyle choice for me, this is who I am.

“And the way I am, like all transgender people who do not feel they belong to their biological gender, should not be discriminated against in the same way that race, religion or political ideology should not be discriminated against.

“And sport that imposes rules based on a binary way of thinking does not factor this in. It is sport that has to find a solution and excluding transgender athletes is clearly not that solution.

“Ultimately, in the seven years in which transgender athletes have been able to compete in the female category, the number of instances in which they have stood out for their sporting results have been very few and far between.”

In 2021, more than 30 female athletes signed a petition that was sent by Quilleri to the president of the Italian Athletics Federation and the ministries for Equal Opportunities and Sport challenging Petrillo’s right to compete in women’s races.

When approached for comment on Petrillo’s selection for the upcoming Paralympics, Quilleri told the BBC: “Every federation can choose between the concepts of inclusion and sporting fairness. World Athletics has chosen the principle of the Olympic spirit, that is to say they have stayed true to the idea of fair competition.

“On the other hand, the Italian Paralympic federation has chosen inclusion.

“It is the visually-impaired athletes who will be beaten by Valentina Petrillo that will have to take up the protests with their federation. For unfortunately it is those at the top of the federations who have allowed this to happen.”