#Women's sports is not a Plan B for mediocre male athletes

[coochiequeens]

Speaking about his personal history with the BBC in June 2021, Petrillo said: “Until four years ago, if you’d talked to Fabrizio (the name Petrillo was given at birth), Fabrizio would have given you the idea he was sexist. He was a tough guy who’d speak dismissively of women and then be a woman in his private space.”

Another misogynist who couldn't succeed against other men.

By Genevieve Gluck August 13, 2024

A 50 year-old trans-identified male from Italy is set to become the first man to compete in a women’s category at the Paris Paralympics. Valentina Petrillo, whose birth name is Fabrizio, who competes in the women’s T12 classification, for athletes with visual impairments, and currently holds 8 women’s running championship titles, despite failing to earn even one while competing as a male.

Petrillo has been diagnosed with Stargardt disease, a disorder of the eye that causes retinal degeneration over time. Due to this visual impairment, he has been permitted to compete in both matches designated for women with disabilities, as well as those which are not.

At the Paralympic Games, which are scheduled to run from August 28 to September 8, Petrillo will run in the women’s T12 200m and 400m. He was cleared to compete against female athletes, despite being a man, by International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Andrew Parsons. The IPC works closely with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the two have self-described as “strategic partners.”

Speaking to BBC Sport, Parsons revealed that the IPC does not enforce an official position for or against allowing men to self-identify into women’s sport, but rather “[allow] individual sports to make their rules in terms of transgender,” which results in rules that are “different from sport to sport.”

“Some are coming with different positions on transgender, or with the criteria to allow them or not to allow them, so I’m not surprised by the repercussions of it,” Parsons said. He added that he hoped the sporting community would “unite��� on policies dealing with gender identity.

According to the World Para Athletics Championships guidance on participation, “an athlete shall be eligible to compete in women’s competition if she is recognized as female by law.” But their policy book goes on to note that it will “deal with any cases involving transgender athletes in accordance with the IOC’s transgender guidelines.”

Petrillo first changed his name to Valentina and began taking estrogen in 2019. The following year, he began competing against female athletes and has since broken multiple Italian women’s running records.

Speaking about his personal history with the BBC in June 2021, Petrillo said: “Until four years ago, if you’d talked to Fabrizio (the name Petrillo was given at birth), Fabrizio would have given you the idea he was sexist. He was a tough guy who’d speak dismissively of women and then be a woman in his private space.”

Mariuccia Quilleri, an athlete and lawyer who has represented several female athletes who oppose Petrillo’s participation in women’s races, told the BBC that inclusion had been chosen over fairness and “there is not much more we can do.”

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