The Italian Valentina Petrillo51, will be the first transgender athlete to compete at the Paralympic Games, taking part in the athletics team in the T12 category, for people with visual impairments, in Paris 2024.
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Born in Naples in 1973, she was diagnosed with Stargardt syndrome at the age of 14, which later left her visually impaired and in 2019 she began her gender transition. After years in the Italian futsal team, when she still competed in the men’s categories, she moved on to athletics where she won 11 national titles.
She was the first transgender woman to compete in the women’s category at the Italian Paralympic Athletics Championships in 2020, came fifth at the 2021 European Championships and in 2023 won two bronze medals at the World Championships in Paris.
Petrillo wants to become a symbol, to be an inspiration for those who have faced their difficulties, he explained to the Italian news portal ‘Fanpage’, “I have to give hope, I want to become the symbol of a world that is rebelling” he said.
Her participation comes after the controversy unleashed by some sectors and hate messages against the boxers the Algerian Imane Khelif and the Taiwanese Lin Yu-ting. The Italian Angela Carini withdrew after 46 seconds of her competition against Khelif after a campaign against the Algerian boxer, who has high levels of testosterone, arose in Italy and the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, assured that “it was not a fight on equal terms”. In Paris she will run in the women’s T12 category for people with visual disabilities in the 400 metres and the 200 metres.
Valentina Petrillo is also the protagonist of the documentary ‘5 nanomoles – The Olympic dream of a trans woman’ which refers to “Five nanomoles per litre of blood is the maximum amount of testosterone allowed by the IOC for transgender athletes to participate in women’s competitions.”
Since her participation in the Paralympic Games became known, she has received tens of thousands of insults through social networks, so she filed a defamation complaint against unknown people for discrimination against equality.
After Valentina Petrillo’s victory in the Italian championships in Ancona, in 400 and 200 metres (in this case setting a new Italian record) “denigration campaigns were launched against me,” she explained.
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