Source: Women are Human
IT — . On 17 May, 2021, it was announced that Valentina Petrillo is set to create a world record as the first, and so far only, male to participate in a female sports competition with male documents.
The software programmer and divorced father, who identifies as a woman and has not undergone cosmetic ‘gender’ surgery, is among the athletes chosen to compete in the European Paralympic Athletics Championship in Poland from June 1 to June 5. Seven athletes, including Petrillo, will compete on the Italian Team for Bydgoszcz 2021 in the women’s category, and 16 in the men’s.
The 47-year-old’s goal is to qualify for the Tokyo 2021 Paralympics.
Petrillo, who has a degenerative eye condition, skyrocketed to international fame in 2020 when the runner was recognized as the first male to compete in the women’s Paralympics, a series of international multi-sport events for athletes with a range of disabilities.
Last September 11 and 12, Petrillo won gold in the women’s 100-, 200- and 400-metre competitions at the Italian Paralympic Athletics Championships.
Before declaring a female identity in 2019, Petrillo competed with other men as Fabrizio, the name that still appears on the athlete’s legal documents. Petrillo won 11 national men’s titles between 2016 and 2018.
I had won 12 Italian titles with the Federation, the president of the Cip (Italian Paralympic Committee ), Luca Pancalli, and that of the Fispes (Italian Federation of Paralympic and Experimental Sports), Sandrino Porru, they were fantastic, they understood my difficulty in competing with men and they did everything possible to achieve something that had never happened in Italy and in the world. We arrived even before the Americans.
I persevered in my dream and I did it but I only had security on the 22nd August 2020.
On September 11th I had a competition. My first competition with women.
– Valentina Petrillo
Petrillo has competed with the able-bodied, but said, “I had problems with them. I didn’t get the same welcome.”
Although female Paralympic athletes are no competition for Petrillo, the athlete claimed in an interview with Italian daily newspaper la Repubblica to have received an “excellent” reception from the women: “On an athletic level, my opponents are very far away, let’s just say that I have no rivals, but none are angry with me for this.” Petrillo insisted this is due to the fact that “the Paralympic world is more used to dealing with diversity, it knows how to think differently.”
Earlier this week Petrillo boasted about setting a new record in the women’s 400m on Facebook. pic.twitter.com/X168RiHy9r
— Women’s Voices (@WomenReadWomen) May 28, 2021
I made a graph to show how in Italy Fabrizio Petrillo was far from top level in the male category and became champion between women as Valentina in 2020. pic.twitter.com/ELKFSscWsN
— Marco Alciator (@avatar_tor) June 1, 2021
ACTION
Those with concerns about the male athlete competing in women’s Paralympic events may contact the following:
European Championships Poland
Email: [email protected]
Paralympic Games
Facebook: @paralympics
Twitter: @paralympics
