{"id":7732,"date":"2024-08-15T13:58:23","date_gmt":"2024-08-15T13:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kohajone.press\/?p=7732"},"modified":"2024-08-15T13:58:55","modified_gmt":"2024-08-15T13:58:55","slug":"first-openly-transgender-athlete-makes-history-with-confirmed-selection-for-paris-paralympics-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kohajone.press\/?p=7732","title":{"rendered":"First openly transgender athlete makes history with confirmed selection for Paris Paralympics 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Valentina Petrillo is set to become the first openly transgender athlete to compete in the Paralympic Games.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Italian\u00a0sprinter Valentina Petrillo, 50, has been selected to compete in the 2024 Paris\u00a0Paralympics\u00a0Games in the T12 200m and 400m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The athlete was diagnosed with Stargardt\u2019s syndrome at the age of 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Valentina<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Valentina Petrillo will be the first openly transgender athlete to compete in the Paralympics (Matthias Hangst\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stargardt\u2019s syndrome is \u2018an eye disease that causes vision loss in children and young adults. It is an inherited disease, meaning it is passed on to children from their parents,\u2019 the American Academy of Ophthalmology\u00a0explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It continues: \u201cStargardt disease is often called juvenile macular dystrophy. In people with Stargardt disease, special light-sensing cells in the macula, called photoreceptors, die off. Central, or detailed, vision becomes blurry or has dark areas. It may also be difficult to see colors well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And according to\u00a0reports\u00a0from The Guardian, Petrillo\u2019s visual range is one fiftieth of what the standard range is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, World Athletics banned any\u00a0transgender\u00a0woman from competing in world ranking competitions if they\u2019d gone through puberty, albeit adding it was \u2018not saying no forever\u2019 as further research is being conducted into guidelines for transgender eligibility, BBC\u00a0reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, World Para Athletics has not set such a rule, with its regulations stating that any athlete who is legally recognized as a woman can compete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Petrillo<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Petrillo started medically transitioning in 2019 (Pamela Rovaris\/Archivio Pamela Rovaris\/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petrillo\u00a0told\u00a0the\u00a0BBC\u00a0she knew she was a woman from the age of nine and started living as a woman in 2018, before beginning hormone therapy in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to starting her medical transition, she\u2019d raced in the male T12 category for athletes with visual impairment between 2015 and 2018 and won 11 national titles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, the athlete competed at the World Para Athletics Championships in the women\u2019s category and won two bronze medals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During an interview in Paris last week, International Paralympic Committee (IPC), Andrew Parsons responded to news of Petrillo being selected to represent her country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cFor the moment World Para Athletics rules allow her to compete, so she will be welcome as any other athlete. [Petrillo] will be welcome as any other athlete. I think it is just fair that we treat [transgender athletes] respectfully.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Petrillo has since addressed being selected to represent her country at the upcoming Paralympics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petrillo told <\/a>BBC Sport she\u2019s been \u2018waiting for this day for three years\u2019 and has \u2018done everything possible to earn it\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also thanked the Italian Paralympic Federation and the Italian Paralympic Committee for \u2018having always believed in [her]\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbove all as a person as well as an athlete,\u201d she added. \u201cThe historic value of being the first transgender woman to compete at the Paralympics is an important symbol of inclusion. This is not a lifestyle choice for me, this is who I am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petrillo resolved: \u201cUltimately, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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