Paris — Italian transgender athlete Valentina Petrillo finished third in the visually impaired women’s T12 400m semifinal at the Paralympic Games on Monday but failed to qualify for the final.
The 50-year-old Petrillo ran a personal best of 57.58 seconds in the second semifinal but finished behind Hajar Safarzadeh Ghaderijani of Iran and Alejandra Paola Pérez Lopez of Venezuela, who both reached Tuesday’s final.
Petrillo ran the fourth heat of the first round in 58.35 seconds to qualify for the semi-finals.
At the age of 14, Petrillo was diagnosed with Stargardt disease, a retinal disease that causes progressive vision loss. As a result, Petrillo gave up running, but his athletic dreams were sparked by Italian track and field athlete Pietro Menea’s gold medal in the 200 meters at the 1980 Olympics.
Petrillo’s appearance comes just weeks after Olympic boxing gold medalist Imane Khelif of Algeria faced intense scrutiny for false claims about her gender, making her case one of the biggest to date at the Summer Olympics.
Petrillo, 50, began her gender transition in 2019 but has been competing in parasports since she was 41. She will win bronze medals in the 200m and 400m at the 2023 World Championships in times of 26.31 and 58.24 seconds, respectively.
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This article has been corrected to show that Petrillo failed to advance to the final after finishing third in the semifinals.
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Avery Hill is a student at Penn State’s John Curley Sports Journalism Center.