Transgender sprinter fails to reach Paralympic final
Transgender athlete Valentina Petrillo failed to reach the T12 400m final at the Paris Paralympics after finishing third in her semi-final.
The 51-year-old Italian sprinter competed in the women's T12 classification on Monday, for athletes with visual impairments.
She finished second in her heat with a time of 58.35 seconds, 1.38secs behind Venezuela's Alejandra Paola Perez Lopez, to qualify for the semi-finals later on Monday.
Despite recording a personal best time of 57.58 in her semi-final, she again finished behind Perez Lopez, while Iran's Hajar Safarzadeh Ghahderijani won in a time of 56.07.
Petrillo had qualified sixth fastest for the semi-finals - 2.99secs behind top qualifier and world record holder Omara Durand from Cuba.
The final is on Tuesday at 11:14 BST.
Petrillo is also competing in the women's T12 200m in Paris, which gets under way on Friday.
What are the rules and what has been the reaction?
Speaking to BBC Sport before the Games, Petrillo, who transitioned in 2019, said her participation in Paris would be an "important symbol of inclusion".
After Monday's heat, she added: "The atmosphere in the stadium is great, it's just a dream come true.
"From today I don't want to hear anything more about discrimination, prejudices against transgender people."
Currently, there is no unified position in sport towards transgender inclusion.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) allows international sport governing bodies to set their own policies.
IPC president Andrew Parsons told BBC Sport that, while Petrillo would be "welcome" in Paris under current World Para Athletics policies, he wants to see the sporting world "unite" on its transgender policies.
It had been reported Petrillo was the first openly transgender athlete to compete at the Paralympics.
But the IPC has since told the BBC Dutch transgender athlete Ingrid van Kranen, who died in 2021, finished ninth in the women's discus final at the Rio 2016 Games.
Van Kranen's story was not widely known at the time.
Mariuccia Quilleri, a lawyer and athlete who has represented a number of fellow athletes who opposed Petrillo's participation in women's races, said inclusion had been chosen over fairness and "there is not much more we can do".
Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Ukraine Oksana Boturchuk, who reached Tuesday's final, said: "I find this not fair, in my opinion. I am not against transgenders in general but in this situation I do not understand and don't support it."
Venezuela's Paralympic Committee (VPC) has called it a "a terrible inequality that puts female athletes (born female) at a great disadvantage".
General secretary Johan Marin told BBC Sport: "We are completely against discrimination, inequality and/or exclusion of any person or group in any social sphere.
"Therefore, respect for individual rights, inclusion and equality must always prevail."
Marin called for an open category for transgender athletes to compete in, calling it the "fairest and most sensible thing".
Who is Petrillo?
Petrillo won 11 national titles in the male T12 category for athletes with visual impairment between 2015 and 2018.
With her wife's support, in 2018 she started living as a woman, and in January 2019 she began hormone therapy.
In 2021, the Italian said in an interview with the BBC that her metabolism changed, resulting in her not being "the energetic person" that she was prior to the hormone therapy, which resulted in her times being slower.
That year, more than 30 female athletes signed a petition that was sent by Quilleri to the president of the Italian Athletics Federation and the ministries for Equal Opportunities and Sport challenging Petrillo's right to compete in women's races.
Last year, Petrillo won two bronze medals at the World Para Athletics Championships.
There are significant differences between World Athletics' policies and those of World Para Athletics.
World Athletics has banned transgender women from competing in the female category at international events. Its president, Lord Coe, said the decision was to "maintain fairness for female athletes above all other consideration".
Under World Para Athletics' rules, a person who is legally recognised as a woman is eligible to compete in the category their impairment qualifies them for.