Transgender athlete Petrillo takes aim at JK Rowling

Italian said she ‘never read Harry Potter’ in response to author calling her an ‘out-and-out cheat’

Valentina Petrillo, the Italian father-of-two who qualified on Friday for a second semi-final of these Paris Paralympics in women’s sprinting, has hit back at being called an “out-and-proud cheat” by author JK Rowling, saying: “I’ve never even read Harry Potter.”
The 51-year-old, who has sparked ferocious controversy by running as a woman at these Games despite competing until the age of 45 as a man, was savaged by Rowling after winning a 400 metres heat for visually-impaired female athletes. “Why all the anger about the inspirational Petrillo?” she wrote, sarcastically. “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.”
When these remarks were put to Petrillo on reaching the semi-finals of the 200m, the self-declared “trans dad” replied: “I’m flattered that Rowling is talking about me – I’ve never even read Harry Potter. I’m told she wrote it but I didn’t read it. By the way, I was told that she in her own book wrote about a sport where there is no gender. So I was expecting different behaviour from Rowling.”
While Quidditch, the imaginary game played in the Harry Potter novels by witches and wizards riding flying broomsticks, did indeed feature participants of both sexes, it hardly seemed a legitimate point of comparison with the highest level of para-sport.
But the athlete remained defiant. Petrillo missed out on the final by nearly a second, despite running a personal best of 25.92sec, beaten into third place in the semi-finals by Katrin Mueller-Rottgardt, who had previously described the Italian’s involvement in her races as “difficult”. “She lived and trained for a man for a long time,” the German had said. “The physical requirements are different to those of someone who was born a woman. This could give an advantage.”
Despite the backlash, Petrillo claimed: “There is so much transphobia in all this. The most important word in Olympic and Paralympic sports is inclusion. We have to find solutions to include everyone, because everyone needs to feel joy in sports, so that’s why we are here. I think that if we want to, we can find a solution. I would like to live in the Paralympic Village all my life because, honestly, I feel protected here.”
Petrillo’s progress to the semi-finals deprived Spain’s Nagore Folgado Garcia, the fastest loser in the T12 200m heats, of the chance to advance, with the governing body of para-athletics choosing to deviate from World Athletics by deciding that womanhood could be defined solely by passport status.
Folgado, 20, is 31 years younger than Petrillo, a staggering age disparity for a 200m race at the elite international level. Born in Valencia, she suffered bilateral retinoblastoma at two years old, leaving her blind in her left eye and with only very limited vision in her right. Irene Aguiar, a Spanish lawyer who has led the campaign in the country for fairness for women in sports, castigated the injustice in the strongest terms.
“Our Paralympic athlete has been left out of the semi-finals because Valentina Petrillo has qualified instead,” she said. “Nagore should be in that semi-final. Female athletes are being discriminated against.”
Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at Sex Matters, said: “It’s clear that for Petrillo, sport is extremely validating. That’s true for anyone who gets to compete at the Paralympics. Only a few athletes ever will, so allowing places in women’s sport to be taken by men is not progressive or inclusive. Petrillo wasn’t good enough and is now stopping a young disabled woman from progressing to the semi-final, and another one from being here at all.”
The Petrillo scandal was, McAnena explained, emblematic of a far wider problem. “What’s happening at the Paralympics is just the tip of the iceberg. Across many sports at all levels, men with transgender identities are pushing women and girls out. But those who object are afraid to speak out. People like Petrillo are welcome in sport, but in the right sex category – and not at the expense of women.”