BOLOGNA, Italy (AP) — Valentina Petrillo fell in love with track and field when she was 7 and watched Italian sprinter Pietro Menea win gold in the 200 meters at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
“I said I wanted to be like him,” said Petrillo, a transgender woman raised as a boy. “I wanted to wear the blue[Italian]shirt, I wanted to go to the Olympics, but, but, I wanted to do it as a woman, because I felt like that wouldn't be masculine, that wouldn't be who I am.”
Forty years later, at age 50, Petrillo is finally realizing her dream, but it won't be at the Olympics: In two weeks, she'll become the first transgender woman to compete in the Paralympics, running the 200 and 400 meters in Paris in the T12 classification for blind athletes.
Read more: Will the 2024 Paris Olympics be gender equal? It depends on how you measure it.
Last year, World Athletics banned transgender women who had a sex change after puberty from competing in the women's division at international competitions, but World Para Athletics, the national governing body for para-athletics, did not comply.
Petrillo, who was diagnosed with a progressive eye condition called Stargardt disease as a teenager, considers himself lucky despite the challenges he has faced. Having lived as a man for most of his life, Petrillo came out as transgender to his wife (with whom he has a son) in 2017 and began hormone therapy two years later.
“Yes, I have vision problems, I have low vision and I'm transgender. Being transgender is not the best thing in Italy, but I'm a happy person,” she told The Associated Press in an interview at her training ground outside Bologna, where she lives.
“I started my gender transition in 2019 and in 2020 I raced in the women's category, fulfilling my dream of playing the sport I've always loved,” she said in Italian. “I turned 50 before it happened… We all have the right to a second choice, a second chance in life.”
In a statement to The Associated Press, the WPA said transgender athletes competing in women's competitions must declare their competitive gender identity as female and certify that their testosterone levels have been below 10 nanomoles per liter of blood for at least 12 months prior to their first competition.
Testosterone is a natural hormone that increases bone and muscle mass and strength after puberty. The normal range for adult men rises to about 30 nmol per liter of blood, while for women it is less than 2 nmol/L.
“Any future changes to the WPA's rules position in this area will only be considered following appropriate consultation with teams and players and taking into account the rights and best interests of all involved,” the WPA said.
In a sports world already struggling with how to create a level playing field among athletes with different levels of impairment, some of Petrillo's competitors argue she has an unfair advantage.
Last year, Petrillo's narrow defeat of Spain's Melani Verguez in the semi-finals of the World Championships to finish fourth sparked a backlash in Spain as Verguez failed to reach the final and therefore missed out on a chance to compete in the Paralympics.
Calling it an “injustice”, Vergés told Spanish sports website Relevo that while he “accepts and respects” transgender people, “we are no longer talking about everyday life, but about a sport that requires strength and physicality.”
The Spanish Paralympic Committee told The Associated Press that its stance had not changed since a spokesman told Spanish media last year: “We respect the World Para Athletics regulations, which currently allow transgender women, like Valentina Petrillo, to compete, but looking to the future we believe it would be appropriate to align our standards with the Olympic world on this issue.”
German T12 sprinter Kathrin Mueller-Rottgart, who has competed against Petrillo, expressed similar concerns to German tabloid Bild.
“Basically, in everyday life everyone should be able to live the way they want, but I think it's difficult in professional sport. She has lived and trained as a man for a long time, so her physical conditions may be different to someone born as a woman. So she may have an advantage in that respect,” Müller-Rottgart said.
Petrillo said she understands to some extent the feelings of those who question whether she should be competing in the women's division.
“Just because you're born a man doesn't mean you're stronger than a woman.”
“I asked myself, 'But Valentina, if you were a biological woman and you saw me racing, how would you feel?' And I answered that I would have some doubts too,” she said. “But through my experiences and what I've learned, I can say with certainty… that just because I was born a man does not mean I'm stronger than a woman.”
Petrillo pointed to an IOC-funded study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in April that showed transgender women were at a physical disadvantage compared to cisgender women in several areas, including lung function and lower-body strength.
“This is actually a disadvantage for me because, first of all, undergoing hormone treatment means going against my body, against my body's biological functions, which is obviously not good for the body,” she said.
Petrillo grew up in the southern Italian city of Naples and thought his running dreams were over when he was diagnosed with Stargardt disease at age 14.
She moved to Bologna in northern Italy to study computer science at the Institute for the Blind and now lives on the outskirts of the city and works in the IT sector.
While sports remained a part of her life, playing five-a-side football for visually impaired athletes, Petrillo didn't return to athletics until she was 41, winning 11 national championships in the men's T12 division between 2015 and 2018.
She placed fifth at the European Para Athletics Championships in 2020, the first race she competed in as a woman, and won bronze medals in the 200m and 400m at last year's World Para Athletics Championships.
At the Paralympics, the women's T12 400m and 200m finals will be held on September 3rd and 7th respectively, with qualifying taking place the day before.
Petrillo will be supported by his ex-wife, his 9-year-old son and his brother.
But she says whatever happens when she steps onto the track at the Stade de France, her biggest challenge has already been won.
“Unfortunately, we still live in a situation where transgender people are marginalized and can't change their papers like I can and get the respect that they deserve,” Petrillo said, “so my heart goes out to them, to those who are less fortunate than me.”
