A famed British novelist is joining Olympic athletes in blasting the Paralympic Games in Paris for allowing a male sprinter who identifies as a woman to compete against female runners.
Before beginning to identify as a female, Valentino Petrillo won 11 titles competing as a man. Since transitioning in 2019 at 46 years old, Petrillo has set a number of records against female athletes, BBC Sport reported.
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The now-51-year-old sprinter, who is visually impaired, secured a spot in the T12 400m event Monday, but missed out on the finale Tuesday after finishing in third place. Of his placement against the female runners, Petrillo — who identified as a “trans dad” — said, “I tried until the end, [but] I couldn’t do it,” according to The New York Times.
In a sarcastic response condemning Petrillo and the Paralympic Games, author J.K. Rowling compared the transgender-identified runner to American cyclist Lance Armstrong, who was infamously forced to return his medals after it was discovered he was taking performance-enhancing drugs.
“Why all the anger about the inspirational Petrillo?” the Harry Potter author wrote. “The cheat community has never had this kind of visibility!”
Rowling continued, “Out and
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