Transgender runner qualifies for final in 400 meters at Paralympic Games

PARIS -- The first openly transgender athlete in the Paralympic Games received little to no reaction from fans at the Stade de France on Monday as she qualified for the final in the 400 meters of her visually impaired classification.

Valentina Petrillo, a transgender woman, ran in the T12 400-meter heat in 58.35 seconds, qualifying her for the final. She will compete in the final around noon on Tuesday before taking on the 200-meter heats on Friday morning.

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.

As she lined up for her introduction, the crowd — made up partly of schoolchildren who overtook the middle deck and lower concourse — seemed unaware that they were seeing a Paralympic first.

Journalists turned out in force, however. As Petrillo trotted through her post-race availability smiling, she saw plenty of microphones and audio transmitters.

Petrillo’s debut comes 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 meters and 400 meters world championship races in 2023 with times of 26.31 and 58.24, respectively.

Without a guide, she fell a bit behind her two competitors but picked up the pace near the end to secure her spot to finish second in her heat.

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Avery Hill is a student in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.