Trans Paralympian Valentina Petrillo claps back at J.K. Rowling's never-ending transphobia

Paralympians are heroes. That's something we all know... unless you're a noted TERF like J.K. Rowling.

The 2024 Paris Paralympics just ended, with hundreds of top athletes from around the world competing to win medals and show the upper limits of human athletic excellency.

However, according to Rowling, at least one of those athletes, trans runner Valentina Petrillo, is a "cheat."

Now, a week after the Harry Potter author and famous TERF called her a "cheat" on X (formerly Twitter), the Paralympian has responded.

After reaching the semi-finals of the 200m run, Petrillo was asked about Rowling's comments.

"I'm flattered that Rowling is talking about me – I've never even read Harry Potter," she said. "I'm told she wrote it but I didn't read it. By the way, I was told that she in her own book wrote about a sport where there is no gender, so I was expecting different behavior from Rowling."

In an interview with The Times, Petrillo further pointed out that Rowling's claim that trans women athletes will invade, take over, and dominate women's sports if allowed in hasn't happened.

"Since 2015, when the IOC opened the Olympics to transgender people, there has only been one person who competed, Laurel Hubbard (a trans woman weightlifter who failed to register a successful lift at the 2020 Olympics, placing last in her group). And there has only been one person that has participated in the Paralympics, me," she said. "So all this feat that trans people will destroy the world [of women's sport] actually does not exist. People said men would go to compete as women just so they could win, but that has not happened at all. It is just transphobia."

Early during the Paralympics, Rowling tweeted a picture of Petrillo along with the message: "Why all the anger about the inspirational Petrillo? The cheat community has never had this kind of visibility! Out and proud cheats like Petrillo prove the era of cheat-shaming is over. What a role model! I say we give Lance Armstrong his medals back and move on."

Rowling's argument that Petrillo is a "cheat" hinges on the premise that Petrillo, and all other trans women, naturally have an unfair advantage in sports that makes it impossible for cis women to beat them.

Despite running a personal best time in the women's 400m T12 race, Petrillo finished third in her semifinal and did not qualify for the finals, having been beaten by a field of cis women. She also failed to qualify for the final in her other event, the 200m race, again, despite running a personal best time.

Petrillo's strength and resilience in the face of hate proves that she's more of a hero than Rowling ever will be.

Rowling had previously attacked cisgender female boxer Imane Khelif during the Olympics, calling her a man and a cheater. Rowling is now being named alongside others like Elon Musk in an online harassment lawsuit filed by Khelif.