Valentina Petrillo: Italian sprinter set to be first transgender Paralympian
Currently, there is no unified position in sport towards transgender inclusion.
The IPC allows international sport governing bodies to set their own policies.
There are significant differences between World Athletics’ policies and those of World Para Athletics.
World Athletics has banned transgender women from competing in the female category at international events. Its president, Lord Coe, said the decision was to “maintain fairness for female athletes above all other consideration”.
Under World Para Athletics’ rules, a person who is legally recognised as a woman is eligible to compete in the category their impairment qualifies them for.
The rules go on to say that “World Para Athletics will deal with any cases involving transgender athletes in accordance with the International Olympic Committee’s transgender guidelines (as amended by the IOC from time to time) and any applicable World Para Athletics regulations.
“The eligibility of persons recognised as third gender in law will be determined by the International Paralympic Committee on a case-by-case basis, in accordance with any applicable World Para Athletics regulations.”
Parsons said last year that the IPC was not considering a ruling across all Paralympic sports.
But, in an interview in Paris last weekend [10 August], he said he was only comfortable with that stance “for the moment”.
“I do think that the sport movement has to, guided by science, come up with better answers for these situations and for transgender athletes,” Parsons said.
“We need to, based on science, have a better and probably a united answer to this population.
“We need to come up with a valid, solid, sound answer for that population.”
Asked if he was prepared for criticism of the IPC when Petrillo competes, he said: “I am prepared for the criticism.
“But again 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.
“So for the moment World Para Athletics rules allow her to compete, so she will be welcome as any other athlete.”
He added: “I think it is just fair that we treat [transgender athletes] respectfully. But I do think science should give us the answer, because we also want to be fair with the other athletes in the field of play. It is a very difficult question. And science hopefully will be able to give us the answer. And what I would like to see in the future is that the whole of sport has a united position on it.”
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