2 months ago
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Transgender jock Valentina Petrillo failed to scope the T12 400m last astatine the Paris Paralympics aft finishing 3rd successful her semi-final.
The 51-year-old Italian sprinter competed successful the women's T12 classification connected Monday, for athletes with ocular impairments.
She finished 2nd successful her vigor with a clip of 58.35 seconds, 1.38secs down Venezuela's Alejandra Paola Perez Lopez, to suffice for the semi-finals aboriginal connected Monday.
Despite signaling a idiosyncratic champion clip of 57.58 successful her semi-final, she again finished down Perez Lopez, portion Iran's Hajar Safarzadeh Ghahderijani won successful a clip of 56.07.
Petrillo had qualified sixth fastest for the semi-finals - 2.99secs down apical qualifier and satellite grounds holder Omara Durand from Cuba.
The last is connected Tuesday astatine 11:14 BST.
Petrillo is besides competing successful the women's T12 200m successful Paris, which gets nether mode connected Friday.
Speaking to BBC Sport earlier the Games, Petrillo, who transitioned successful 2019, said her information successful Paris would beryllium an "important awesome of inclusion".
After Monday's heat, she added: "The ambiance successful the stadium is great, it's conscionable a imagination travel true.
"From contiguous I don't privation to perceive thing much astir discrimination, prejudices against transgender people."
Currently, determination is nary unified presumption successful athletics towards transgender inclusion.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) allows planetary athletics governing bodies to acceptable their ain policies.
IPC president Andrew Parsons told BBC Sport that, portion Petrillo would beryllium "welcome" successful Paris nether existent World Para Athletics policies, helium wants to spot the sporting satellite "unite" connected its transgender policies.
It had been reported Petrillo was the archetypal openly transgender jock to vie astatine the Paralympics.
But the IPC has since told the BBC Dutch transgender jock Ingrid van Kranen, who died successful 2021, finished ninth successful the women's discus last astatine the Rio 2016 Games.
Van Kranen's communicative was not wide known astatine the time.
Mariuccia Quilleri, a lawyer and jock who has represented a fig of chap athletes who opposed Petrillo's information successful women's races, said inclusion had been chosen implicit fairness and "there is not overmuch much we tin do".
Tokyo 2020 metallic medallist Ukraine Oksana Boturchuk, who reached Tuesday's final, said: "I find this not fair, successful my opinion. I americium not against transgenders successful wide but successful this concern I bash not recognize and don't enactment it."
Venezuela's Paralympic Committee (VPC) has called it a "a unspeakable inequality that puts pistillate athletes (born female) astatine a large disadvantage".
General caput Johan Marin told BBC Sport: "We are wholly against discrimination, inequality and/or exclusion of immoderate idiosyncratic oregon radical successful immoderate societal sphere.
"Therefore, respect for idiosyncratic rights, inclusion and equality indispensable ever prevail."
Marin called for an unfastened class for transgender athletes to vie in, calling it the "fairest and astir sensible thing".
Petrillo won 11 nationalist titles successful the antheral T12 class for athletes with ocular impairment betwixt 2015 and 2018.
With her wife's support, successful 2018 she started surviving arsenic a woman, and successful January 2019 she began hormone therapy.
In 2021, the Italian said successful an interrogation with the BBC that her metabolism changed, resulting successful her not being "the energetic person" that she was anterior to the hormone therapy, which resulted successful her times being slower.
That year, much than 30 pistillate athletes signed a petition that was sent by Quilleri to the president of the Italian Athletics Federation and the ministries for Equal Opportunities and Sport challenging Petrillo's close to vie successful women's races.
Last year, Petrillo won 2 bronze medals astatine the World Para Athletics Championships.
There are important differences betwixt World Athletics' policies and those of World Para Athletics.
World Athletics has banned transgender women from competing successful the pistillate class astatine planetary events. Its president, Lord Coe, said the determination was to "maintain fairness for pistillate athletes supra each different consideration".
Under World Para Athletics' rules, a idiosyncratic who is legally recognised arsenic a pistillate is eligible to vie successful the class their impairment qualifies them for.
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