Valentina Petrillo, the first-ever openly transgender athlete to participate at the Paralympic Games, could not qualify for the final of the women’s T12 400 metres for visually impaired runners after finishing third in her semi-final at Paris 2024 on Monday, September 2. (Full Coverage | More Sports News)
Despite a personal-best timing of 57.58 seconds in the second semi-final, the 51-year-old Petrillo finished behind Iran’s Hajar Safarzadeh Ghahderijani and Venezuela’s Alejandra Paola Perez Lopez, who both advanced to Tuesday’s final.
“I’m a little down, but I hope my son will be proud of me. This is important to me because he has a trans dad, not the dad that everyone dreams of. But I hope he will be proud of me,” The Guardian quoted Petrillo as saying after the semi-final.
“I tried my best until the end, I didn’t make it, I missed the last straight. I pushed more than I did this morning and I tried my best. They are stronger than me, I had to go down too much, to do a 56 [seconds]. With 57.50, I have to be happy even if I’m a little down," she added.
Petrillo had earlier run the fourth heat in the first round in 58.35 seconds, advancing to the semi-finals.
She was diagnosed with Stargardt disease, a retinal disease that causes a progressive loss of vision, when she was 14 years old. Petrillo stopped running subsequently, though her dream to compete was ignited by Italian athlete Pietro Mennea’s 200-metre gold-medal-winning performance at the 1980 Olympics.
Petrillo’s participation came weeks after Olympic boxing gold medalist Imane Khelif of Algeria became a huge talking point over a controversial gender eligibility test that led to many questioning her inclusion in the women's event.
The 51-year-old Petrillo began her transition in 2019, but has been competing in para sport since she was 41 years of age. She bagged bronze medals in the 200m and 400m world championship races in 2023 with times of 26.31s and 58.24s, respectively.
Petrillo will be seen in action again in the T12 200m heats, which will be held on Friday.
