Trans Athlete Wins Bronze in Women’s 400m at 2023 World Para Athletic Championships

A man identifying as a woman has won bronze in the women’s 400m at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships in Paris.

Valentina Petrillo, a 49-year-old man who believes he’s a woman, added to his list of accolades in the women’s category on Thursday by winning a women’s championship medal, Reduxx reports.

Petrillo competed in a division reserved for those with visual impairment. Petrillo, whose real name is Fabrizio, suffers from Stargardt disease, a degenerative eye condition.

Petrillo placed third in the race, beating out Fatima Ezzahra El Idrissi of Morocco. According to Reduxx, transgender competitors are allowed to compete in the World Para Athletics Championships because the organization follows International Olympic Committee (IOC) guidelines which state that it will “deal with any cases involving transgender athletes in accordance with the IOC’s transgender guidelines.”

However, Peter Erikkson, the former head coach of the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic program, sees the World Para Athletic’s decision to fall back on IOC guidelines as a cop-out.

“It’s shocking to see that women’s opportunities to a medal were taken by a cheating 49-year-old male,” Eriksson said. “The International Paralympic Committee is diminishing the rights of fairness in women’s sport by allowing transgender athletes at their events.”

Erikkson continued, “It’s a cop-out not to make a stance in support of women in sport. It feels kind of like they are trying to push the blame onto the IOC. They adapted World Athletics rules and should also adopt the World Athletics regulation on transgender and DSD participation.”

Petrillo changed his name and began taking estrogen in 2019. One year later, he began smashing Italian women’s running records. While Petrillo holds eight women’s running championships, he has never won a single championship competing in the men’s division, Reduxx reports.

In March of this year, a women’s advocacy group fought to ensure that Petrillo could not use the women’s changing areas at the Italian Indoor Masters Championship in Ancona. Petrillo lashed out at the group and those critical of his presence in women’s sports in a fiery Facebook post where he said his detractors were on the “same level as Hitler.”