3 months ago
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Italy's Valentina Petrillo has become the first openly transgender athlete to compete at a Paralympic Games after qualifying for the women's T12 400m semi-finals.
The 51-year-old sprinter competed in the women's T12 classification on Monday, for athletes with visual impairments and finished second in her heat with a time of 58.35 seconds, 1.38 seconds behind Venezuela's Alejandra Paola Perez Lopez.
Petrillo qualified sixth fastest for the semi-finals - 2.99 seconds behind top qualifier and world record holder Omara Durand from Cuba.
The semi-finals get under way later on Monday at 19:43 BST, with the final on Tuesday at 11:14 BST.
Speaking to BBC Sport before the Games, Petrillo, who transitioned in 2019, said that her participation in Paris would be an "important symbol of inclusion".
Currently, there is no unified position in sport towards transgender inclusion.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) allows international sport governing bodies to set their own policies.
IPC president Andrew Parsons told BBC Sport that while Petrillo would be "welcome" in Paris under current World Para Athletics policies, he wants to see the sporting world "unite" on its transgender policies.
The IPC has confirmed Petrillo is not the first transgender athlete to compete at the Paralympics.
The governing body told the BBC Dutch athlete Ingrid van Kranen, who died in 2021, finished ninth in the women's discus final at the Rio 2016 Games.
Mariuccia Quilleri, a lawyer and athlete who has represented a number of fellow athletes who oppose Petrillo's participation in women's races, said inclusion had been chosen over fairness and "there is not much more we can do".
Venezuela's Paralympic Committee (VPC) have called it a "a terrible inequality that puts female athletes (born female) at a great disadvantage".
General secretary Johan Marin told BBC Sport: "We are completely against discrimination, inequality and/or exclusion of any person or group in any social sphere.
"Therefore, respect for individual rights, inclusion and equality must always prevail.
"Precisely because of the latter, we consider that the inclusion of a transgender athlete (born male), in a female category."
Marin called for an open category for transgender athletes to compete in calling it the "fairest and most sensible thing".
Petrillo won 11 national titles in the male T12 category for athletes with visual impairment between 2015 and 2018.
With her wife's support, in 2018 she started living as a woman, and in January 2019 she began hormone therapy.
In 2021, the Italian said in an interview with the BBC that her metabolism changed, resulting in her not being "the energetic person" that she was prior to the hormone therapy, which resulted in her times being slower.
That year, more than 30 female athletes signed a petition that was sent by Quilleri to the president of the Italian Athletics Federation and the ministries for Equal Opportunities and Sport challenging Petrillo's right to compete in women's races.
Last year, Petrillo won two bronze medals at the World Para Athletics Championships.
