Visually impaired Italian sprinter, 50, set to become first-ever transgender Paralympian after being picked to run in women's races in Paris, five years after she started gender transition

Visually impaired Italian sprinter, Valentina Petrillo, 50, is set to become the first-ever transgender athlete to compete at the Paralympic Games and believes her participation is an 'important symbol of inclusion'. 

Petrillo, who transitioned in 2019, won bronze in the T12 200m at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships and will compete in the T12 200m and 400m in Paris.

It follows the much-discussed boxing gender row that has engulfed the Olympic Games after Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting's participation in the women's event.

Both insisted that they were born female and neither has identified as otherwise, but both fighters, who went on to win Gold in Paris, were disqualified from competing at the World Championship for failing a gender test.

Speaking on her selection by the Italian team, the 50-year-old sprinter, Petrillo - who will begin her attempts to win at the upcoming games in the T12 women's 400m on Monday, September 2, thanked organisers for her selction.

'I have been waiting for this day for three years and in these past three years I have done everything possible to earn it,' Petrillo told BBC Sport.

'I deserve this selection and I want to thank the Italian Paralympic Federation and the Italian Paralympic Committee for having always believed in me, above all as a person as well as an athlete.

'The historic value of being the first transgender woman to compete at the Paralympics is an important symbol of inclusion.'

Under Rule 4.5 of World Para Athletics' rules and regulations, the governing body states that athletes who are legally recognised as a women are eligible to compete in female disciplines.

The regulation adds: 'World Para Athletics will deal with any cases involving transgender athletes in accordance with the International Olympic Committee's transgender guidelines.'

That policy differs from World Athletics' stance, however, who banned transgender athletes from competing in women's events in March 2023, with Lord Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, stating that the decision was take to ensure fairness and 'protect the female category'.

International Paralympic Committee (IPC) president, Andrew Parsons, told BBC Sport that Petrillo would be 'welcome' at the upcoming games. But he also hoped that sporting bodies around the world could someday unite on their stance on the participation of transgender athletes.

'I am prepared for the criticism,' he said when asked by BBC Sport whether he was ready for any possible criticism he may receive in relation to Petrillo's inclusion.

Asked whether he was prepared for any possible criticism he may receive in relation to Petrillo's inclusion he added: 'I am prepared for the criticism.'

'But again we need to respect our rules, we cannot disrespect our rules. So sometimes as an individual, I think one way or another, but we need to follow our constitution, we need to follow our own rules and in specific sports, the rules of the international federations need to be respected.

'So for the moment World Para Athletics rules allow her [Petrillo] to compete, so she will be welcome as any other athlete.

'I think it is just fair that we treat [transgender athletes] respectfully. But I do think science should give us the answer because we also want to be fair with the other athletes in the field of play. It is a very difficult question. And science hopefully will be able to give us the answer. And what I would like to see in the future is that the whole of sport has a united position on it.'

Petrillo was born with Stargardt disease, a rare degenerative eye condition where tissue develops on the small part of a person's retina that is used for sharp vision. 

Common symptoms include a gradual loss of eye sight and the illness is believed to be caused by changes in a person's genes. There is no known cure for the illness.

Mail Sport understands that Petrillo had previously competed in men's national races before transitioning in 2019. She had won 11 national titles in the men's T12 category.

She has previously opened up on the first time she had worn women's clothing, trying on one of her mother's skirts at age nine. She said to the BBC: 'It was an incredible emotion. It was like touching heaven with your fingertip.'

But she was worried her family would ostracise her and forgot the feeling, continuing life 'dressing as a man'.

In 2017, Petrillo had told her wife that she was transgender and would later start hormone treatment, with her wife supporting her through the process. They remain married and have two children.

She said: 'I hadn't planned it. I was in bed with my wife, about to fall asleep, and I said: "Remember I told you once I dressed up as a woman?" She said: " In reality, it wasn't once, I do it every day."'

Petrillo would go on to compete in her first race as a transgender athlete at the Italian Paralympics Championship in September 2020. It was here that she won gold in the T12 100m, 200m and 400m events.

She would go on to win bronze at last year's World Para Athletics Championships but faced criticism for her inclusion.

Former Canadian Olympic head coach stated that the result was 'shocking'. British marathon runner Mara Yamauchi said to The Telegraph: 'How many 49-year-olds would win medals at world level?'

Petrillo has previously told the BBC: '[It is] better to be a slow happy woman than a fast unhappy man.

'I don't feel like I'm stealing anything from anyone.'

Today, Lord Coe, who was present at last night's closing ceremony in Paris, has vowed to 'protect the female category' in women's sport.

The British Olympian, who won gold and silver at both the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games in Stuttgart and Los Angeles, is running to take over from retiring International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach.

'I can't really sit here having a glass ceiling where there are female athletes coming into our sport who know that there will be a point beyond which biology is going to determine the outcome of what they do,' Coe told ITV.

'It's very simple for me: have a policy, stick to it, communicate it, and don't get distracted by dissenting voices.'

He added: 'Sometimes you just have to stick a stake in the ground and say: "This far, and no further," and the decision we made at World Athletics was pretty clear-cut.

'I'm elected to do some pretty serious things and one of them is the preservation of the female category, because if you don't do that, then no woman will ever win another sporting event and I take that quite seriously.

'I come from a sport where we are a 50-50 sport. Female athletes, as you've seen here, are box-office. In fact, there have been some periods in the sport where they have actually carried the sport.'

The subject of transgender athletes competing in other female sports has been a much-discussed topic in 2024, with Darts star Deta Hedman, a three-time World Championship finalist, withdrawing from several events.

She forefitted a match in March at the Denmark Open after refusing to take on trans player Noa-Lynn van Leuven from the Netherlands.

She subsequently withdrew from a women's singles tournament run by the United Kingdom Darts Association in July, after being drawn to face transgender player Sam Lewis.