Valentina Petrillo, the first openly trans sprinter to participate in the Paralympics, has qualified for the Paralympic semifinal of the women’s 200 meters T12 scheduled for tonight, after the controversy of recent days. The 51-year-old athlete from Naples, visually impaired since the age of 14 due to Stargardt syndrome, began a process of social and then hormonal transition of gender reassignment in 2018, which in 2023 led to her being admitted to women’s competitions by the international federation World Para Athletics.
“The first word that must be put on the agenda of those who manage sports, both Olympic and Paralympic, is that of inclusion”, commented Petrillo after the qualifications, “we must find a solution to include respecting the current genders and contemplating the need that a person has to feel like themselves”.
For Gaynet, Petrillo’s access to the semi-final is the best response to the accusations of cheating launched by British writer JK Rowling who compared her to Lance Armstrong who took drugs: “Petrillo reminded her that in her book she talked about a sport without gender, which later became known as Quidditch”, commented the president of Gaynet, Rosario Coco.
In the semifinals, among Petrillo’s rivals, there will be the Spanish Melani Berges who, assisted by a lawyer, had accused the Neapolitan athlete, later pointed out by the media as “the Italian trans who had unjustly excluded the blind Spanish woman”. “Lawyer Aguiar should just apologize, because her controversy has fomented rivers of transphobic hatred throughout the world that sooner or later can turn into more serious acts”, said Coco.