JK Rowling condemns transgender sprinter Valentina Petrillo as an ‘out and proud cheat’ as father-of-two fails to qualify for women’s 400m final at Paralympics | HO

JK Rowling has branded transgender Paralympic sprinter Valentina Petrillo a ‘proud cheat’ with ‘no shame’.

The author and women’s rights campaigner has decried the inclusion of the Italian athlete, 51, who is biologically male but identifies as a woman.

After Valentina qualified for the semi-finals of the visually impaired 400m in the Stade de France yesterday, Ms Rowling tweeted sarcastically: ‘Why all the anger about the inspirational Petrillo? ‘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 one critic claimed Petrillo was competing in Paris as a woman ‘on her own merit’, Ms Rowling replied: ‘Being a man is an advantage in sports that require speed and strength. We both know you know that, but you’ve chosen to pretend you don’t’.

She added: ‘I am the daughter of a mother with a disability. This is not an abstract talking point to me, it’s a red line’.

JK Rowling has branded transgender Paralympic sprinter Valentina Petrillo a ‘proud cheat’ with ‘no shame’

Ms Rowling’s sarcastic tweet was part of a string of messages on the issue where she said Petrillo’s inclusion in the Games crossed a ‘red line’

JK Rowling was also critical of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who competed in the women’s boxing and won gold at the Olympics despite having previously failed a gender eligibility test.

Valentina Petrillo failed to qualify for the final of the T12 400m last night – but has dismissed critics as ‘jealous’.

Speaking after losing the semi-final in the Stade de France, Valentina said that others in the race were ‘stronger’ than her.

”I tried my best until the end, I didn’t make it, I missed the last straight,” Petrillo said.

“I pushed more than I did this morning and I tried my best. They are stronger than me, I had to go down too much, to do a 56 [­seconds]. With 57.50, I have to be happy even if I’m a little down.

‘I’m a little down, but I hope my son will be proud of me. This is important to me because he has a trans dad, not the dad that everyone dreams of. But I hope he will be proud of me’.

Petrillo, who won almost a dozen sprint titles as a man before transitioning in 2019 aged 45, has said that competing in Paris is the fulfilment of a ‘dream since I was a little girl’.

Valentina insists that it is ‘better to be a slow happy woman than a fast unhappy man’.

Valentina ran as a man until 45, collecting a number of national disabled championships

Ms Petrillo, who transitioned in 2019, is the first trans runner to compete at a Paralympics

Visually impaired Italian sprinter, Valentina Petrillo, 51, in Paris

Petrillo was born with Stargardt disease, a rare degenerative eye condition that has no cure

It is an extraordinary journey for the athlete, who has children and until recently was married to their mother.

‘I’m happy as a woman and running as a woman is all I want. I couldn’t ask for more’, the sprinter has said.

‘This was a dream that I had since I was a little girl.

‘I’ve got a fire inside me, that pushes me. An emotional strength. Obviously, my body’s not what it was at 20 when I was at my peak, but my happiness pushes me to go further, to go beyond my limits’.

In a recent interview ahead of the games, Valentina said:’ My son Lorenzo, my ex wife and my brother, are for me the most important things. Family is everything. They are the pillars of my life and they will be with me in Paris.

‘Sadly my father is 83 years old and he can’t be there but I hope to give him a beautiful present.’

While in 2020 Valentina, who was born in Naples, before moving to Bologna more than 30 years ago where she now lives, revealed how she had initially called herself Vanessa after transitioning.

She said: ‘For me Vanessa represented the first part of being a woman. Vanessa would spend hours putting her make up on, she always had to be perfect, she was always taking photos of herself.

‘She needed to be seen as a woman. One day in Milan, speaking to my wife Elena, we decided on a new name.

‘Valentina was different, for example she doesn’t need a wig.’

She also revealed how she would love to get a phone call from Pope Francis and said she would ask him:’ Why do people look at me with a funny look in church ?

‘It’s as if a trans couldn’t cant take Communion or believe in God. Fortunately there are priest with an open mentality, such as the one that takes my confession. I know Pope Francis would understand.’

She added how she had first told her family in 2017 that she was trans gendering and said: ‘My life was at a crossroads, I could no longer deal with what I had inside me.

‘I didn’t choose to be trans, I am trans. It was difficult, I lost all my friends, relationships, everything that I had built up in 44 years of male life.

‘I understood that it was difficult for the outside world to accept me, I was asked ‘How can you be an example of a good father when you dress as a woman ?’

‘I went from some one was a perfect man to something that was not very good.’

She became a woman legally in 2023 and her brother is called Francesco. Her father is Eduardo and she said: ‘It was a difficult job for him but he was the first to call me Valentina. My brother took a little more time.

‘My mother Adriana, died in 2017 before I started my transitioning but she had already twigged everything.’

Valentina Petrillo (pictured) – the first ever transgender Paralympian, qualified for the women’s T12 400m semi-finals on Monday

Petrillo finished second in her heat which was enough to secure her passage to the next round

Petrillo on the back straight

Valentina starts heat 4 of the T12 400m

Italy’s Valentina Petrillo before the race

Valentina was a successful male athlete competing in Italian competitions and between 2016-2018 she won 11 medals.

Describing the moment she told her wife in 2017 – who she only married in 2016 that she wanted to transition – Valentina said:’ My wife was the first person I told.

‘When she wasn’t around I would dress in her clothes, I would put on her lipstick, I would use her make up but I felt awful.’

Wife Elena stuck by him and the two are still friends although she has since gone on to have another child with a new partner, while son Lorenzo is also close.

Valentina said:’ He’s watching all of my changes and is asking a lot of questions but he still calls me daddy, he doesn’t have a male dad like other children but he has a dad who will always be with him.

‘Let’s see how it goes as time passes, because things are evolving, he’s seen his daddy change into a woman but for the time being he seems to be tranquil.’

Valentina said in an interview on Italian TV said:’When I was younger and playing with my little girl friend, I was three or four and we would swap roles.

What are the rules on trans Athletes competing at the Paralympics?

Under Rule 4.5 of World Para Athletics’ rules and regulations, the governing body states that athletes who are legally recognised as a women are eligible to compete in female disciplines.

The regulation adds: ‘World Para Athletics will deal with any cases involving transgender athletes in accordance with the International Olympic Committee’s transgender guidelines.’

That policy differs from World Athletics’ stance, however, who banned transgender athletes from competing in women’s events in March 2023.

Lord Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, stated that the decision was take to ensure fairness and ‘protect the female category‘.

‘I thought that if I prayed long and hard enough I would become a woman but it never happened.

‘When I was younger growing up I would look at girls and say to myself “Why can’t I dress like that ?”

‘I go to church, and I spoke to a priest about taking Holy Communion and I asked if it was a sin but he said it wasn’t and I could carry on.’

Speaking of her ex wife Elena in 2020, Valentina told Italian broadcaster: ‘We live together and we love each other but it’s a different love.

‘My wife had to digest the fact that she had initially married a man but was now married to a woman, there was another woman in the house and she had to live with that.

‘I told her that when she threw dresses away I would pick them out so I could dress in them. I would wear her clothes.

‘I used to watch my mum when I was a child putting her make up on and I thought I want to do the same but I didn’t understand why I was feeling like that.

‘I understand it wasn’t normal but I didn’t know where to turn or who to speak to, there was no internet then but when I did transition Elena was the first person I told.

‘I used to wear transparent makeup and nail varnish, I used to tell my wife that it was because I played guitar and had to protect my fingers.

‘I also used to shave all my body hair off and told her I did it for my running races.’

Valentina added: ‘Of course she was shocked when I first told her, she thought I was joking then we started going out and buying clothes together.

‘I converted my wardrobe from a man’s one to a woman’s one keeping only a few things that I needed for work.’

Valentina had hormone treatment from 2018 and said: ‘Now I feel so happy.

Computer programmer Valentina added: ‘People looked at me initially as if I was an extra terrestrial. People can think what they want but I’m not going to be false. I need to be happy and live as woman.

‘I’m hoping that my story will help other trans athletes being accepted.

‘What I want to tell my wife is that I love her more than anything and she has been so supportive.’

Born in Naples, Petrillo was a talented runner in school but hopes of being an Olympic runner were hit at the age of 14 after being diagnosed with Stargardt disease – a degenerative eye condition.