Italian sprinter Valentina Petrillo hoping to be ‘first of many’ trans Paralympians

Valentina Petrillo will become the first openly transgender athlete to compete at the Paralympics and wants to be the “first of many”.

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 makes her debut 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 400m in the T12 category for visually impaired athletes.

Petrillo said it would be “the most important moment of my sporting career” after just missing out on the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago.

She has long suffered from Stargardt disease, a genetic retinal condition that 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 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,” Petrillo said. “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.”

Italy’s Valentina Petrillo. Picture: Matthias Hangst/Getty Images

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

Hormone treatment allowed her to cut testosterone levels by four 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 for which their impairment qualifies them.

After officially becoming a woman in the eyes of the Italian state last year, Petrillo won bronze in both her favoured distances at the World Para Athletics Championships in the French capital and 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,’’ she said.

“If I manage that then a medal might not be far away.”

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 cyber bullying 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 said.

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

New Zealand's Laurel Hubbard competed in the women's +87kg weightlifting competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Picture: Mohd Rasfan/AFP

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 said. “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 and said her ageing father had always supported her.

She will be cheered on at the Stade de France by her children, brother and ex-wife.

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