Paralympics: Italy's first transgender sprinter fails to reach 400m final

Italian transgender athlete Valentina Petrillo failed to reach the final of the women's T12 400 meters for visually impaired runners after finishing third in her semifinal at the Paralympic Games here.

The 50-year-old Petrillo ran a personal best 57.58 seconds in the second semifinal on Monday but finished behind Iran's Hajar Safarzadeh Ghahderijani and Venezuela's Alejandra Paola Perez Lopez, who both advanced to Tuesday's final.

Petrillo earlier ran the fourth heat in the first round in 58.35 seconds, qualifying for the later semifinal.

Petrillo was diagnosed with Stargardt disease when she was 14, a retinal disease that causes a progressive loss of vision. Petrillo stopped running as a result, though her dream to compete was sparked by Italian athlete Pietro Mennea's 200-meter gold-medal performance in the 1980 Olympics.

 

Petrillo's appearance came weeks after Olympic boxing gold medalist Imane Khelif of Algeria faced intense scrutiny following false claims about her sex. Her story became one of the biggest of the Summer Games.

The 50-year-old Petrillo began her transition in 2019 but has been competing in para sport since she was 41. She collected bronze medals in the 200 and 400 world championship races in 2023 with times of 26.31 and 58.24, respectively.