Valentina Petrillo (she/her), a trans-disabled Italian Paralympic athlete recently crashed out of the 400m qualifying sprint at the Paralympics Games Paris 2024. The 51-year-old will however compete in the finals of the 200m sprint on Friday, September 6.

Petrillo is the first trans woman to participate in an International Paralympic Women’s Championship, debuting at the Italian Paralympic Athletics Championships in 2020. She began her transition in 2018 with the support of her wife, and started hormone replacement therapy and other medical transitioning procedures in 2019, allowing her to debut in the women’s category a year after.

The World Para Athletics association allows transgender athletes to compete in the gender category that aligns with the gender they’re recognized “by law”. They also require trans-women, like Petrillo, to show evidence of having maintained testosterone levels below 10 nanomoles per litre of blood for a whole year prior to the competition. Despite these bio-essentialist restrictions on trans athletes right to self-determination, it could be considered a step-up from the rules of the Olympics, which require all trans athletes to have transitioned before 12, i.e., puberty. Thus qualifying stellar athletes like Valentina Petrillo for their respective sports.

Also read: Paris Olympics: Inclusive-Tea, Protests, and Water Quality Woes

It’s truly amazing that we have prominent trans representation at this year’s global sporting events DESPITE all the transphobic restrictions. With the Imane Khelif controversy, the rampant transphobia and racism we witnessed earlier this year, didn’t leave us with much hope for the Paralympics either.

The 96 athletes from Russia and Belarus will compete under a neutral banner but are barred from the opening and closing ceremonies, providing they have not shown any support for the war. Meanwhile, Israel has been allowed to partake in the event.

It is also noteworthy that this edition of the Paralympics observed the largest refugee contingency ever, who were all welcomed with loud cheers. Fadi Aldeeb is the only Palestinian paralympic athlete, and the wheelchair-using basketball player is originally from the Gaza strip, where a mass-disabilizing genocidal aggression is currently underway.

Accessibility Takes the Spotlight at the Paralympics Games in Paris

Thomas Jolly, who served the Artistic Director of the Opening Ceremonies and also oversaw the Olympics opening ceremony, said that there was deep symbolism in putting the Paralympics ceremony at the center of the French capital – a city whose Metro system, in particular, is completely unadapted to the needs of wheelchair users. “Putting Paralympic athletes in the heart of the city is already a political marker in the sense that the city is not sufficiently adapted to every handicapped person,” Jolly told IOL publication.

And for the first time in this sporting event’s history, the opening ceremonies were held in the open, outside the stadium at Champs Elysees for all public spectators to watch, and will then be at the Place de la Concorde for ticket holders. All aspects of the ceremony have universal accessibility incorporated into it, so all participants and spectators can partake without any barriers. The French president Emmaneul Macron and International Paralympics Committee (IPC) president Andrew Parson were also spotted in attendance.

Transphobia Is An Easy Sport

Many transmisic commentators have pointed out their disappointment at the Paralympics for letting Valentina Petrillo compete in the women’s sprint category, despite only having started her transitioning in her mid-40s. It is implied that Petrillo is at some form of “biological” advantage at the sport, which is a bit ironic considering that it is the Paralympics, and Petrillo has reportedly competed against non-disabled athletes in the past. This kind of bio-essentialist ideology of gender also reiterates this idea that women’s spaces need to be protected, instead of leveling the systemic barriers that it creates or offering affirmative action at institutions so that they can be overcome. We forget that the only reason why “women-only” spaces need “protection” is because the world beyond that is not safe enough for them. Why is it that, neutral spaces are by default thought of to be male and thus male dominated?

Also read: Imagining a Queer Future in Sports, one Trans Person at a Time

Let me remind every transphobic cis-woman that transphobia is still anti-feminist and misogynistic because it comes at the cost of every woman’s identity being belittled and open to public critique set against impossible standards of womanhood, and this experience is not just faced by trans women (as was evident in the tirade against Imane Khelif).

Much like every other celebration of trans joy, the infamous author of the Harry Potter book series, J K Rowling, had to share her opinions online about Valentina Petrillo’s historical milestone. If I was a successful author, I would focus on doing more of what I’m good at, rather than being a chronically online transphobe, but that’s just me. JKR called Petrillo a cheat after she qualified for the T-12 400m women’s semi-finals, where she eventually placed third. JKR couldn’t stop herself from being sarcastic on the internet, sharing a tweet;

The Next Generation Of Sports

Be it sports or even public spaces, why are we not focusing on training people without segregating them on the basis of gender and disability, creating neutral categories and opportunity for teamwork, and offering affirming accommodations where necessary? Is this not the mindset we want to approach the next generation of athletes from?

Sports for women, cis or trans, is not athletics lite, when compared to men’s. Or that women’s bodies somehow come in the way of achieving athletic proficiency. In fact, it is a space carved from the space that male sports occupies, not just in terms of coverage but also budgeting.

Also read: Queering Disability

Leaving you to ponder over these points, because to be frank, it is tiring to see every accomplishment of a queer athlete being overshadowed with “controversies” from queerphobic writers, journalists, and netizens who feel like they need to verbalize their hate at every queer- celebration.