transgender Sprinter Valentina Peto fails to reach for 100 meters Final on Paro Olympic tobut Valentina Peto competes in the women's T1 to 400 m Heats in Paris an emotionally overwhelmed Valentina Petrillo the Italian transgender Sprinter whose participation in the par Olympic games has caused a storm of controversy said I hope my son will be proud of me after she failed to reach the final of the women's T12 400 m on Monday night trillo finished third in her semi-final with only the top to going through to the final to face the might of Cuba's omara dur the 51-year-old Italian said her opponents had in the end been stronger than me but said she was proud of her achievements as she cut short her postrace press conference after being overwhelmed by Tears I tried my best until the end I didn't make it I missed the last straight petrello said I pushed more than I did this morning and I tried my best they are stronger than me I had to go down too much to do a 56 seconds with 57.50 I have to be happy even if I'm a little down I'm a little down but I hope my son will be proud of me this is important to me because he has a trans dad not the dad that everyone dreams of but I hope he will be proud of me petrolo competes in the T12 category for visually impaired athletes she developed star guard disease a degenerative eye condition as a child she also underwent a gender transition in midlife after a successful career as a male par aete and has been the subject of scrutiny and Challenge from female par athletes in 2021 a petition was submitted to the Italian Athletics Federation by more than 30 athletes calling for her to be removed from female competition rules established by the world par Athletics Association however allow for transgender athletes to compete in women's competition if they are recognized as female in- law this is an approach contrary to that set by World Athletics which determines criteria for entry into the Olympics Lord Sebastian Co the world Athletics president has said that policy was arrived at in order to maintain fairness for female athletes above all other consideration after qualifying from the first round Heats earlier in the day petrolo had described her performance as the realization of History she said we are here today on September 2nd 2024 let's mark this down as a historic day from this day forth I don't want to hear any more talk about discrimination or Prejudice for Trans people now I've made it so we can all make it if I've made it I've done my little bit and we can all make it Petrillo is now poised to race again in the T12 200 M Heats an event scheduled to take place on Friday morning