Inside Valentina Petrillo’s life: From health battle with Stargardt disease to moment she could no longer suppress her secret from ex-wife and kids

Italian athlete Valentina Petrillo has won 11 national titles as a men’s athlete, but will compete as a woman in the women’s Paralympic categories in Paris this month.

Petrillo, 51, was cleared to compete in the event after the sports governing body accepted her eligibility. She was born a man named Fabrizio and became a father of two, but transitioned in 2019.

On Monday she qualified for the semi-finals of the women’s 400 metres after finishing second in her heat, beating a Chinese runner 18 years her junior.

World Para Athletics claims her post-transition testosterone levels make her fit to compete, but her controversial participation has been met with fierce backlash, with one rival even voicing concern she may have an “advantage” over the field.

“I’m happy as a woman and running as a woman is all I want. I couldn’t ask for more,” Petrillo told the BBC in an extensive interview published in 2021.

Her participation was met with much backlash, but she has defended her eligibility

Petrillo (left) qualified for the semi-finals of the women’s 400m after finishing second in her heat

‘I have a fire inside me that drives me forward. An emotional force.

‘Of course my body isn’t what it was when I was 20 and at my best, but my happiness motivates me to keep going, to push my boundaries.’

Petrillo revealed that she had a passion for running from a young age, but at age 14, her track career seemed over before it had even begun. She was diagnosed with Stargardt disease, a degenerative eye condition for which there is no cure.

She briefly played for the Italian national football team for the visually impaired after moving to Bologna at the age of 20. Petrillo did not take up running again until she was 41, and went on to win a host of titles as a men’s athlete.

The sprinter can still remember the moment she first put on her mother’s skirt, describing the emotion as “unbelievable” and “like touching the sky.”

However, she told no one about her deep-seated secret and her continued life, as she put it, “dressing up as a man.” But she still couldn’t find true happiness and one day in July 2017, she realized that she couldn’t hide it any longer.

“I didn’t plan it,” she said. “I was in bed with my wife, about to fall asleep, and I said, ‘Do you remember when I told you I dressed up as a woman once?’ She said yes. I said, ‘Actually, it wasn’t just once. I do it every day.'”

The athlete suffers from Stargardt’s disease, an eye condition for which there is no cure

She had a passion for running from a young age and won 11 national titles in the men’s category

Petrillo has two adult children and was married to their mother until recently

She received support from her wife and began living as a woman in 2018. A year later, she began hormone therapy and underwent physical and emotional changes.

“My metabolism has changed. I’m not the energetic person I used to be,” she revealed.

‘In the first few months of menopause I gained 10 kilos, I can no longer eat as well as before, I have anemia, low hemoglobin levels, I am always cold, I no longer have the same physical strength, I no longer sleep as before and I suffer from mood swings.’

Petrillo has two adult children and was married to their mother until recently.

She has strongly defended her right to compete in this year’s Paralympic Games and will also compete in the 200 metres later in the competition.