(23 Aug 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY: AP AND SNTV CLIENTS MAY USE
ASSOCIATED PRESS – AP AND SNTV CLIENTS MAY USE
Bologna – 19 August 2024
1. Wide of Valentina Petrillo running towards the camera
2. Various of Petrillo while training
3. Close of track
4. Various of Petrillo while training
5. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Valentina Petrillo, Paralympic athlete:
“In January 2019 I started the transition process and in 2020 I achieved my dream, which was to compete in the women’s category to play the sport that I have always loved, because I fell in love with athletics when I was seven years old seeing my idol Pietro Mennea win at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. I said to myself I want to be like him, I want to wear that blue shirt, I want to participate in the Olympics. But I wanted to do so as a woman because I didn’t feel like a man, I didn’t feel like myself.”
6. Wide of Petrillo sitting on a bench
7. Various of Petrillo removing running shoes
8. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Valentina Petrillo, Paralympic athlete:
“There are very clear regulations which I respect. And above all I’m legally a woman. My ID says that I am female with a regular female birth certificate. The Italian State has recognized me as a woman and therefore I should be treated as such."
9. Various of Petrillo while training
10. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Valentina Petrillo, Paralympic athlete (on relationship with other athletes and whether she feels discrimination):
"Everyone talks about my victory for 0.06 seconds, but no one says that Melani Berges has always defeated me. Nobody says this. This means that the information is misguided. Obviously it is exploited. In other respects, I have never had any problems with the Paralympic world. They have always included me, and therefore, the Paralympic world saved me because it gave me the chance to be myself, and this is fundamental.”
11. Various of other athletes running and walking
12. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Valentina Petrillo, Paralympic athlete:
"Unfortunately we still live in a situation where transgender people are marginalized, who will never be able to change a document like I did, who will never be able to get what they deserve, the respect they deserve. And therefore my thoughts go to them, to those who have been less fortunate than me. From now on I’d like to hear beautiful stories of transgender people, of people with disabilities, everybody. And my hope is that from my story they can find the inspiration and the strength to believe a different tomorrow is possible.”
13. Various of Petrillo training
STORYLINE:
Valentina Petrillo fell in love with athletics as a seven-year-old while watching Italian sprinter Pietro Mennea win gold in the 200 meters at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
“I said I wanted to be like him,” said Petrillo, who was assigned as male at birth. “I wanted to put on the blue (Italy) shirt, I wanted to go to the Olympics. But I wanted to do it as a woman because I didn’t feel like a man, I didn’t feel like myself.”
Four decades later, at 50, Petrillo is about to finally realize her dream, but not at the Olympics. In two weeks, she is set to become the first transgender woman to compete at the Paralympics when she runs the 200 and 400 meters in the T12 classification for visually impaired athletes in Paris.
Petrillo, who was diagnosed as a teenager with Stargardt disease, a degenerative eye condition, considers herself lucky despite the challenges she’s faced. She’s lived most of her life as a man and only came out as transgender to her wife — with whom she has a son — in 2017 before beginning hormone therapy two years later.
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/30dd3d29f7874782a1095bb8dbaf4150
Author: AP Archive
Go to Source
News post in August 28, 2024, 12:04 pm.
Visit Our Sponsor’s:
News Post In – News
