First trans athlete to compete in the paralympiades, Valentina Petrillo Finally he tells his story in a book published with Capovolte Edizioni. Words collected thanks to sports journalists Ilaria Leccardi and Claudio Arrigoni and the courage of the author, who after years confesses to having definitively closed the accounts with his own gender identity. “Valentina and I are now the same person.”
How was the idea of this book born?
“I always liked writing, from an early age. I have always felt the need to understand me through writing. About a year ago, the journalist Ilaria Leccardi of the Evilte publishing house who proposed this project contacted me. I said to her: “I have already written it.” But then, when I detect it, I understood that the exposure no longer represented me. It was written in the third person, I was talking about Valentina as if I were not I and I actually Valentina and I until then were not properly the same person. It took me time to accept this ‘coexistence’ in me. So that day I began to rewrite it this time in the first person. Valentina and the same person. This was the turning point. I was mature to tell me, ready to share my story with full awareness. “
What was the most difficult part of telling its story?
“When I wrote, I realized that wounds that I believed were healed in reality they were still open. Sometimes I wrote and cried. Telling the depression, when I found myself alone, without more references, oppressed by my exteriority and the world that does not want you. It was like reliving those difficult moments ”.
To what extent, do you think sport “trains” to life?
“Sport, athletics saved my life. In the darkest moments it was the only thing I could do, he interrupted infinite tears. “
After Luca Pancalli could there be a woman as president of the CIP?
“Yes, it would be nice, why not? For me Luca remains and will always be a reference, not only for its institutional office. He is one of those people who in the sadest moments have infused me with hope ”.
What would it mean to who criticized it in recent years?
“I say to these people I can understand them. I myself, when I didn’t know, I thought it differently. That it is essential to know before judging. This is the greatest imputation that I do to them, to have criticized me and offended without knowing anything about the topic, just for the sake of hurting. I understand that I represent a novelty and that will take time to get used to it. I feel anger or grudge towards these people. I have always been open to dialogue, compared, I have never hidden myself and what I said is only the truth. Life always offers us a second chance, it’s up to us to take it and treasure it. “
Do you have any projects for the future in the pipeline?
“Yes, after Paris, after the dream come true, we returned slowly on the ‘earth’. In 2025 I would like to devote myself more to myself, to my family, to my son. I no longer have the obsession with reaching that goal and therefore I am much more serene. I would like to resume playing the guitar and we are working so that one day ‘faster than time’ is a theatrical work. Ambitious project, perhaps more difficult than reaching Paris. But I like challenges. “
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