Valentina Petrillo, a transgender Paralympian who competed against women at the Paris Paralympics, has responded to criticism levelled by JK Rowling for taking part in the event.
Petrillo's eligibility to compete in the women's category at the Paris Paralympics sparked backlash in the weeks leading up to the Games. Petrillo competed in the T12 400-meter race. The Italian runner was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease known as Stargardt disease as a teenager and began transitioning from male to female in 2019.
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Italy's Valentina Petrillo during the women's 400m semi-final at the Stade de France during the Paris Summer Paralympic Games. (Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images)
Last week, the “Harry Potter” author wrote in X that Petrillo was cheating. Petrillo fired back in an interview with The Times of London.
“JK Rowling is only concerned with the fact that I use the women's bathroom, but she knows nothing about me,” Petrillo told the outlet.
Petrillo attributed the criticism to a world supposedly rooted in “prejudice and transphobia.”
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Valentina Petrillo prepares to compete at the Stade de France stadium during the Paralympic Games in Paris, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Jackson Ranger)
While World Athletics last year banned trans athletes from competing in women’s events if they transitioned after puberty, World Para Athletics still allows transgender athletes to participate as long as they declare that their gender identity for sporting purposes is female and provide evidence that their testosterone levels have been below 10 nanomoles per litre of blood for at least 12 months prior to their first competition.
“Since 2015, when the IOC opened the Olympics to transgender people, there has only been one person who competed, Laurel Hubbard,” Petrillo added. “And there has only been one [openly transgender] person who has participated in the Paralympics, me. So all this fear that trans people will destroy the world [of women’s sport] It doesn't really exist.
“People said [lots of] “Men would go and compete as women just so they could win, but that hasn't happened at all. It's just transphobia.”
Rowling responded to Petrillo after the interview was published.
JK Rowling arrives for the Guinness Six Nations match at the Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh on February 24, 2024. (Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty Images)
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“Yes, no. That is not the only thing that worries me, or any of the millions of women who worry about the destruction of categories, boundaries and female rights,” she wrote in X.
Fox News' Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report.
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