Valentina Petrillo: 'Better to be a slow happy woman than a fast unhappy man'
Valentina Petrillo could this year become
slotxo the first openly transgender woman to compete at the Paralympics. For the visually impaired Italian, selection for the national squad would be a dream come true - but she says she understands why other athletes may have doubts and questions about racing against her.
"I'm happy as a woman and running as a woman is all I want. I couldn't ask for more," says Valentina Petrillo.
"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."
Passionate about running from an early age, Petrillo's aspirations were seemingly dashed at the age of 14, when she was diagnosed with Stargardt disease, a degenerative eye condition, for which there is no cure.
After finishing school in her hometown of Naples, she moved to Bologna at the age of 20 to study computer science at the Institute for the Blind. Here she took up sport again, becoming a member of Italy's national five-a-side football team for people with sight loss.
It was only at the age of 41 that she finally started running again, winning 11 national titles in three years in the male T12 category for athletes with visual impairment.
She is now 47, and recognises that this is her last chance to compete at the Paralympics, but she wants to keep running whether she gets to Tokyo or not.
In fact, it was only last September that she ran her first official race as a female para-athlete - at the Italian Paralympics Championship, where she won gold in the 100m, 200m and 400m T12 events.
