J.K. Rowling is among a number of voices including former Olympic athletes decrying the inclusion of a trans sprinter in the women’s sprinting category at the Paris Paralympics.
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51-year-old Petrillo Valentino Petrillo is set to represent Italy in the women’s T12 400m category after qualifying for the semi-finals on Monday. The semi-finals are set to take place later on Monday followed by the finals on Tuesday.
Petrillo, who is visually impaired, is also competing in the women’s T12 200M category.
According to the BBC, between 2015 and 2018 Petrillo previously won 11 national titles in the men’s T12 category for athletes with visual impairment.
Petrillo has competed as a woman since medically transitioning in 2019 at the age of 46. Within two years of transitioning the sprinter had set records in the women’s 200 meters plain T12 category and 400 meters plain indoor T13 category.
In a tweet, Rowling described the athlete as a “cheat,” writing sarcastically on X: “Why all the anger about the inspirational Petrillo? The cheat community has never had this kind of visibility! Out and proud cheats like Petrillo prove the era of cheat-shaming is over. What a role model! I say we give Lance Armstrong his medals back and move on.”
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Mara Yamauchi, a two-time Olympian marathon runner, was among those also criticizing Petrillo’s inclusion in the women’s categories. “This makes my blood boil,” she tweeted as part of a long thread. “A talented, hard-working, exceptional female athlete is out of the T12 400m bc of a 50-year old father of two performing womanface on the world’s stage.”
Former tennis champ Martina Navratilova, who is currently commentating the U.S. Open for Sky Sports, retweeted Yamauchi’s comments, adding: “Amen to this thread! And stop telling it’s the democrats that did this. It’s men who are doing this- men in positions of power like IOC who make the rules and males who know they have advantage but compete against women anyway[.]”
Earlier Petrillo told the BBC the participation of a trans athlete was an “important symbol of inclusion.”
During the Olympic Games last month, J.K. Rowling was among those criticizing the inclusion of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif in the women’s boxing category. Khelif is not transgender but reportedly has a difference of sex development and is believed to have previously failed a gender eligibility test for the sport.
Khelif, who won the Olympic gold in the category, has since filed a criminal complaint with French authorities over alleged “acts of aggravated cyber harassment” in which Rowling and X owner Elon Musk are named.
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