Trans runner Valentina Petrillo won bronze in the women's 400m at the World Para Athletics Championships at the age of 49. Photo: Getty Images/Matthias Hangst
Valentina Petrillo, a 49-year-old biological male, won bronze in the women's 400m at the World Para Athletics Championships in Paris. The Italian, who was 18 years older than any other participant in the race, denied the Moroccan representative Fatima Ezzara El Idrissi a podium place in the T12 final for visually impaired athletes.
The Petrillo medal, the first won by a transgender athlete on the global athletics stage, drew swift condemnation, with Peter Eriksen, Canada's former Olympic head coach, calling the result “shocking” and Mara Yamauchi, the third fastest British woman. marathon runner in history, asking, “How many 49-year-olds would win medals at the world level?”
El Edrissi, fourth place contender, 27, and Cubans Omare Duran and Alejandra Pérez López of Venezuela, gold and silver medalists, aged 31 and 25.
“I don't feel like I'm stealing”
Petrillo's participation in international competitions has long been a source of concern. Having only started hormone therapy to begin the transition in 2019, at the age of 45, Petrillo entered the women's 100, 200 and 400 meters at the Italian Paralympic Championships the following year and immediately won all three races. “It's better to be a slow, happy woman than a fast, unhappy man,” she told the BBC. “I don't feel like I'm stealing from anyone.”
Although Petrillo from Naples hoped that these victories would earn him a place at the Tokyo 2021 Paralympics, the Italian Disabled Sports Association declined to nominate. The governing body declined to state its reasons publicly, but came under intense pressure behind the scenes from Petrillo's fellow competitors, some of whom expressed concerns about fairness.
Petrillo was denied entry to the Tokyo 2021 Paralympic Games by the Italian Sports Association for the Disabled. Photo: Getty Images/Matthias Hangst
When Petrillo won the 200m indoor masters title in Ancona in March, when the men's race would have only lasted 14th, Cristina Sanulli, runner-up, said: “We don't feel equal, because Petrillo's physical body is a man. So we're running off par. Although the personal path that Valentina has chosen is worthy of respect, from a sporting point of view it is not, and because of this we feel very discriminated against.
“On the same level as Hitler”
The World Para Athletics Guide to Participation states that “an athlete is eligible to compete in women's competition if she is recognized as a woman by law”. But their policy goes on to note that it will “handle any case involving transgender athletes in accordance with International Olympic Committee guidelines.” The IOC's stance on the transgender controversy is so evasive that it has veered off any decisions towards individual sports, and in March, World Athletics announced that only those born female should compete in women's races.
This is a strict ruling. like Petrillo's bronze highlights have yet to be translated into para-events. Earlier this year, organizers of the World Championships in Veteran Athletics warned of possible protests against Petrillo, who competed in women's over 45s.
When Petrillo, who was not known to have undergone gender reassignment surgery , she was denied access to the women's locker rooms in Ancona, the athlete attacked detractors, saying that she was “on the same level as Hitler.”
“I did not undergo hormone therapy to win, I I did it for myself,” said Petrillo, who is married to a woman and has two children.
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