Sprinter to make history by becoming first ever transgender Paralympic athlete

A sprinter is poised to make history as the first transgender athlete to compete in the Paralympics, which are due to take place between 28 August - 8 September.

Italian sprinter Valentina Petrillo, 50, first received gender-affirming treatment in 2019, undergoing hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

At the Paralympics, Petrillo will be competing in the women's T12 classification, for athletes with visual impairments.

Petrillo will run in the T12 200m and 400m races.

She told BBC Sport that her participation at the Paralympic Games is an 'important symbol of inclusion'.

Petrillo, a skilled athlete, won two bronze medals at the World Para Athletics Championships in 2023.

Valentina Petrillo is the first trans athlete to compete in the Paralympics (Marco Mantovani/Getty Images)

President of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), Andrew Parsons, confirmed that Petrillo is 'welcome' in Paris under the World Para Athletics policies, though it is his wish for the sporting world to 'unite' on transgender policies in the future.

What is Valentina Petrillo's story?

Petrillo has previously stated that she knew she was a woman since the age of nine.

Her eye condition that has led to her competing in the Paralympics is stargardt disease, a degenerative eye condition, which was diagnosed at age 14.

Petrillo won 11 national titles in the male T12 category between the years of 2015 and 2018.

She began receiving gender affirming treatment in 2019 with the support of her wife.

Speaking to the BBC about how her transition affected her sports skill, she said: "I'm not the energetic person I was. In the first months of transition I put on 10kg."

President of the International Paralymic Committee, Andrew Parsons. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

She continued: "I can't eat the way I did before, I became anaemic, my haemoglobin is low, I'm always cold, I don't have the same physical strength, my sleep isn't what it was, I have mood swings.

"I'm not the same as before."

She added: "As a sportsperson, to accept that you won't go as fast as before is difficult. I had to accept this compromise, because it is a compromise, for my happiness."

Despite this, she has gone on to win medals at the World Para Athletics Championships as well as the National Para Championships since her transition. She has also competed in masters athletics events against non-disabled women.

The rules in sport

Ultimately, no unified position has been reached with regards to transgender inclusion in sport.

The IPC allows international sport governing bodies to make their own decisions.

Meanwhile, World Athletics has banned transgender women from competing in the female category at international events.

Valentina Petrillo first received gender-affirming treatment in 2019 (Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)

World Para Athletics' rules state that a person who is legally recognised as a woman is eligible to compete.

Parsons has said that Petrillo is 'welcome' at the Paralympic Games as per the rules, before adding: "I think it is just fair that we treat [transgender athletes] respectfully. But I do think science should give us the answer, because we also want to be fair with the other athletes in the field of play. It is a very difficult question. And science hopefully will be able to give us the answer.

"And what I would like to see in the future is that the whole of sport has a united position on it."

Petrillo's views on competing at the Paralympics

She added to BBC Sport: "I have been waiting for this day for three years and in these past three years I have done everything possible to earn it.

"I deserve this selection and I want to thank the Italian Paralympic Federation and the Italian Paralympic Committee for having always believed in me, above all as a person as well as an athlete."

The Paralympics begin in Paris on 28 August. (Chesnot/Getty Images)

She went on to stress what her response to naysayers would be.

She added: "This is not a lifestyle choice for me, this is who I am.

"And the way I am, like all transgender people who do not feel they belong to their biological gender, should not be discriminated against in the same way that race, religion or political ideology should not be discriminated against.

"And sport that imposes rules based on a binary way of thinking does not factor this in. It is sport that has to find a solution and excluding transgender athletes is clearly not that solution.

"Ultimately, in the seven years in which transgender athletes have been able to compete in the female category, the number of instances in which they have stood out for their sporting results have been very few and far between."