A transgender athlete The 50-year-old Italian has eliminated the Spaniard from the semi-finals of the 200 metres for the blind Nagore Folgado. It is about Valentina Petrillo who is participating for the first time – despite his age – in some Paralympic Games, since she only began her transition to a woman in 2019. The Italian achieved the ninth best time, while the 20-year-old from Valencia was on the verge of entering the next phase, since of the 12 runners who reached the semi-finals, she was 13th.
On Friday morning, they played at the Stade de France in Paris the 200-meter series for the blind. There were five rounds in which the first-place team qualified directly for the semi-finals, from which the next eight fastest times qualified. Nagore Folgado With his guide, he achieved a time of 26.74, finishing in thirteenth position and thus narrowly missing the semi-finals.
But the most surprising thing was the ninth place. There he appeared Valentina Petrillo who became one of the first transgender women to participate in some Paralympic Games. At 50 years old and without a guide, the Neapolitan achieved a score of 25.95, which allowed her to reach the semi-finals. The first victim was Folgado, who almost made it into the top 12.
The controversy follows that which arose in Olympic Games with the Algerian winning gold in boxing Imane Khelif and the Taiwanese Lin Yu-ting. Both men were banned from the last World Cup due to doubts about their gender, due to higher than normal testosterone levels, but were accepted by the IOC, which deemed those levels to be within parameters.
Transgender athlete at the Paralympic Games
The case of Petrill It’s totally different. In this case, The Italian woman was born a man. In fact, he has two children and was married to a womanIt was in 2017 that he confessed to his wife that he wanted to start the sex change and two years later he started hormone treatment, so at 50 he had the opportunity to participate in the Paralympic Games.
The official website of JJPP Paris 2024 includes statements regarding Petrillo: “I’m happy as a woman and running as a woman is all I want. I couldn’t ask for more. I dream of a future where no one will have to hear stories like mine anymore. For 44 years I had no tools, I thought I was the only one in the world living this situation.
At the age of 14, Stargardt’s disease was detected. This is a macular dystrophy, which degenerates the macula during adolescence. This leads to a deterioration of the area of maximum sensitivity of the eye, which allows fine vision of details, leading to a progressive loss of vision. She thus became one of the first transgender athletes to participate in the Paralympic Games.
