Valentina Petrillo shouldn't be allowed to compete in the women's race

[AhBiscuits]

Valentina Petrillo only started transitioning 5 years ago and previously competed as a man. How can that be fair? I appreciate that she did not make the final, but she's taken the place of a woman who has worked her arse off, but couldn't surpass Valentina's natural advantage.

Thanks for taking the time to write that out. Personally I feel with something like this it's best to attack/address the system rather than the person. But your post has made me think so I genuinely thank you for that.

I wouldn't but I wouldn't be cheating if I did. If I meet the criteria it's the criteria that need changing.

Indeed these males are very entitled, it's their right to shove women aside and take. Says it all really.

Of course he shouldn't.
It's absolutely ridiculous.

This is the kind of shit that people look back on and say 'How could it happen? How could no one see reality?'

Yes hive it 10 years

My view personally is that even a year ago this thread would not have been allowed to stand on MN alone- and if it were to be allowed it would have more holes than swiss cheese with all the deletions for the posters who point out this person is a man.

So that's possibly a sign of things changing right there. I woke up this morning having expected the thread to have vanished.

Thank goodness we are now allowed to speak in some biological fact and not completely shut up by the gender ideologists

I don't care if he "transitioned" 27 years ago. That process has no meaning in sport and little meaning outside of sport. He's a man. A man who has transitioned is a man.
I used to have some sympathy and a vestige of kindness . That's gone. Rapists in women's prisons. Men beating up women for prizes. Disabled women told to move over and lose for creeps like this.
This is my No.

As a couple of people have already pointed out, it's the governing bodies of each sport who make the rules about whether male transgender athletes (and athletes with DSDs) can compete in female competitions. It's not the IPC's decision (and it's IPC not the IOC who run the Paralympics. They are completely separate organisations).

That said, he absolutely should not be competing in women's races, and world para athletics really needs to changes its rules. But if people are quite rightly angry about this, they need to be getting angry at the right organisation.

stripy, I also think we are campaigning very hard to make the changes to the regulations. So very very hard.

What strikes me is that there was a male skier, Erik Schinegger, who upon discovering that he was a male person with a difference of sex development that led to him being registered as female when he was born, and he was disqualified on that basis, went and competed as a male in male events. He also returned his championships etc.

That man’s actions showed me that these athletes have the agency to make decisions that respect other athletes as well as show self respect.

By now, I have seen so many male
athletes declare that they have understood that their inclusion is controversial. They know female athletes and people in general are complaining that this is fair, because they mention it in the many media articles they feature in. Incidentally, articles they feature in vs very little media coverage of the boring old female sexed athletes, if you get my meaning.

I don’t believe any male athlete is competing in female sports categories without understanding that experts have stated that it is unfair. Even Dr Richard Budgett of the IOC publicly acknowledged it was an unfair policy, but he then stated that the IOC chose inclusion over fairness.

edited to make it two posts.

Nah, he's a cheat. I agree with you that the fundamental issue is the rules, but nobody is making him do this.

One of the definitions Oxford Languages provides of cheating is acting unfairly. This man competing in a women's category is unfair. He's a cheat.

I don’t believe any male athlete is competing in female sports categories without understanding that experts have stated that it is unfair. Even Dr Richard Budgett of the IOC publicly acknowledged it was an unfair policy, but he then stated that the IOC chose inclusion over fairness.

And yet, I can list male people, including Caster Semenya, who also then use their position as champions in female sports categories to tell female athletes that female athletes are just not as good as them, or that female athletes should just ‘try harder’. These male athletes know. They know and they choose to make the regulations work for them to win, to claim prize money and acclaim.

There are male cyclists in the USA who are competing in each different event of the season and getting the prize money every time. There are a group of them and too often they are getting all three podium places. Yet the USA cycling regulators for those events refuse to change the rules. Because those are special male people who declare they are female because they have a transgender identity. Female cyclocross champions are now leaving the sport.

Women in darts now will face ‘disciplinary action’ for forfeitting their game in protest that the international darts body has allowed unfair regulations to stand. And yes, there is plenty of male advantage in darts. It has to do with height, muscle fibres, skeletal proportions and even hip alignment for balance. Grip strength, twitch muscles, height, hip alignment, even lung capacity are all important and do not change with testosterone suppression. This is now well undrerstood.

Yet, the female competitors in darts are now being threatened with disciplinary action.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/darts/article-13808439/Female-darts-players-threatened-disciplinary-action-refusal-play-transgender-opponents-British-star-pulled-two-events-protest.html

The female athletes are having their ability to protest removed. They are being silenced, and the male athletes know why and they defiantly keep entering the events.

Because they can! That is part of the attraction. They can transgress the boundaries of female athletes,
and society in general.

So, I understand being uncomfortable with the focus on the individual athletes. But these discussions have been highly public now for several years. The athletes involved should not be considered ignorant that they have these advantages. Even if their coaches have told them to ignore the ‘hate’, they know by now.

They know and part of the attraction of competing is knowing they are transgressing the boundaries of female athletes in doing so.

That is a feature of the movement supporting this decision. It is about transgressing societal boundaries for their own person benefit.

Why don’t we just get rid of all the categories, and the competitive elements, of sport? People could enter a ballot from which one person is chosen per country, at random. Those people then run around a track. They can run any distance. No one notes their times. At some point the crowd just starts clapping, which signals the end of the event. Now that would be inclusive.

Exactly. He's a cheat. The fact that this is facilitated by the rules doesn't make him less of a cheat. He knows the rules are unfair as well as anyone.

Also saying "I am a trans dad". Dads are men. Talk about having your cake and eating it. He has the advantage of male puberty, the experience of fatherhood and of competing as a man, and now he wants to compete as a woman at an age when a woman's running career would be over. That is an amazing degree of entitlement.

I believe you describe the Caucus Race from Alice in Wonderland.

No, no, you forget @KTheGrey . It's not an amazing sense of entitlement, it's 'Stunning and Brave' .

Yanbu, of course he shouldn't be competing in the women's race.

Haha! I’d forgotten about that. Even better!

All have won! All shall have prizes!

(Oh well except for some of those annoying women who 'don't try hard enough')

of course not

once again male entitlement trumps what is fair and females are ignored

DSDs are different.

It's not fair to tell a female who was told they were female at birth, have female on their birth certificate and were raised female they aren't female.

There are questions to be asked and answered around sport and competing. But a female who has gone into sport believing they are female and having no idea they have a DSD shouldn't be called a cheat and publicly vilified.

But a man with a male DSD isn't female. Just because he had poor care as a child doesn't mean he gets to punch women as compensation. Or deny them sporting opportunities.
It's not complicated