Canada’s former Olympic head coach Peter Eriksen called Petrillo’s competition against women in the Paralympics “shocking,” GBN reported on Monday. Indulging “transgender” athletes undermines the original rational basis for having sex-specific athletics in the first place, as women’s rights advocates have warned, and research affirms that physiology gives males distinct athletic advantages that cannot be fully negated by hormone suppression.
International Paralympic Committee (IPC) president, Andrew Parsons, defended Petrillo’s participation as in accordance with the “rules” of World Para Athletics, saying that he is “prepared for the criticism” he faces for approving Petrillo’s competition against women.
“We need to respect our rules, we cannot disrespect our rules. So sometimes, as an individual, I think one way or another, but we need to follow our constitution, we need to follow our own rules, and, in the specific sports, the rules of the international federations need to be respected,” he said, per GBN.
Attorney Fausta Quilleri, who also runs in the over-35s “Master” category of the Italian Paralympics, petitioned the president of the Italian Athletics Federation and the ministries for Equal Opportunities and Sport in 2021 to exclude Petrillo from women’s races, to no avail.
“[His] physical superiority is so evident as to make competition unfair,” she wrote, noting that the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) sole focus on testosterone “makes no sense” when physique also affects athletic performance.
Petrillo first officially competed as a woman in the 2020 Italian Paralympics Championship, where he won gold medals in the 100m, 200m, and 400m T12 events.
Despite his gender confusion, Petrillo married and had a son, but revealed his love of cross-dressing to his wife in 2017. After her initial shock, his wife supported his desire to live as a woman.
In January 2019, he began using hormones, which he said triggered anemia, mood swings, and led to decreased physical strength.
However, Petrillo has admitted that so-called “trans women,” who are really males, have physical advantages over women.
Gender-confused men “are on average taller, bigger and stronger than cisgender women [actual women] even after hormone therapy [sic], and those are advantages in many sports,” he told the BBC.
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