Visually impaired Italian sprinter, 50, set to become first-ever transgender Paralympian after being picked to run in women's races in Paris, five years after she started gender transition

Visually impaired Italian sprinter, Valentina Petrillo, 50, is set to become the first-ever transgender athlete to compete at the Paralympic Games and believes her participation is an 'important symbol of inclusion'. Visually impaired Italian sprinter, Valentina Petrillo, 50, is set to become the first-ever transgender athlete to compete at the Paralympic Games Petrillo, who transitioned in 2019, is due to compete in the T12 200m and 400m in Paris 'I have been waiting for this day for three years and in these past three years I have done everything possible to earn it,' she told BBC Sport Your browser does not support iframes. That policy differs from World Athletics' stance, however, who banned transgender athletes from competing in women's events in March 2023, with Lord Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, stating that the decision was take to ensure fairness and 'protect the female category'. Petrillo was born with Stargardt disease, a rare degenerative eye condition that has no cure The Italian would go on to win bronze at the World Para Athletics Championships in 2023 'I am prepared for the criticism,' he said when asked by BBC Sport whether he was ready for any possible criticism he may receive in relation to Petrillo's inclusion. Petrillo transitioned in 2019 and would go on to compete in her first official race as a transgender athlete at the Italian Paralympics Championship in September 2020 Sebastian Coe has vowed to 'protect the women's category amid his push to be IOC president 'I can't really sit here having a glass ceiling where there are female athletes coming into our sport who know that there will be a point beyond which biology is going to determine the outcome of what they do,' Coe told ITV.