A visually impaired sprinter hopes to become the first transgender athlete to compete in the Paralympic Games.
Italy s Valentina Petrillo, 47, competed in men s national races before transitioning in 2019. She was born with Stargardt disease, a degenerative eye condition that has no cure.
After decades of dressing up as a man , as she describes it, she came out to her wife, who supported her as she began living as a woman and then started hormone therapy. The couple remain married and share two children.
Now, less than a year after winning her first official race as a female paralympic athlete at the Italian Paralympics Championship, Petrillo is hoping to make it onto Italy s Paralympic squad.