In brief: 

• Media narratives, based on the same facts, may frame public views on transgender athletes, focusing on fairness vs inclusivity. 

• The Telegraph and The Daily Sceptic criticise Valentina Petrillo, a transgender woman, for being permitted to compete in the Paris 2024 Paralympics, citing unfair advantages.

• Meanwhile, The Guardian emphasises inclusion, focusing on the runner’s gender identity and progress in sports.

Framing different sides of the same story

The power of media narratives framing the debate around fairness vs inclusivity may greatly influence how the issue of transgender athletes in sports is understood by the wider public.

Petrillo, a 51-year-old visually impaired father of two, has made headlines by becoming the first openly transgender athlete to compete at the Paralympics in Paris 2024. 

The Telegraph & The Daily Sceptic focus on unfairness

In an article titled Avoidable Valentina Petrillo debacle will rock Paralympics thanks to institutional cowardice, The Telegraph takes a strong stance on the fairness debate, casting Petrillo’s participation in a highly critical light. 

Oliver Brown, the chief sports writer, argues that Petrillo’s male physiology, even after hormone therapy (at 45), gives the runner an undeniable advantage over biologically female competitors.

Brown focuses on the residual physical benefits from male puberty, not to mention living life as a male. He points out that Petrillo’s personal best times in the men’s category were mediocre, but are competitive in the women’s category. 

He writes, “Here is a figure who, in a documentary aired this summer, announced to the interviewer: ‘You can see I’m a man,’” thus reinforcing the paper’s focus on the perceived unfairness of Petrillo’s participation.

The article notes athletes’ bewilderment and powerlessness to protest. The Telegraph positions itself as sympathetic to these athletes, suggesting that the decision to allow Petrillo to compete is an institutional failure.

In addition, The Daily Sceptic takes an even more hardline stance on labelling Petrillo’s inclusion in women’s sports as fundamentally unfair. Author Will Jones writes that Petrillo is ‘set to steal women’s prizes at the Paralympics’. 

As an aside, Petrillo had been running in the T12 200m and 400m events, but did not advance to the final in either event. Notably, arguments regarding testosterone levels aside, Petrillo is 51 in a sport open to people as young as 17.   

Jones also notes how Brown avoids using ‘she,’ presumably to bypass the “ridiculous insistence on using preferred over biologically correct pronouns”.

The Guardian focus on inclusivity

In contrast, The Guardian’s article, Valentina Petrillo to become first openly transgender athlete at Paralympics, focuses on inclusion, the right to compete based on gender identity, and the symbolic victory for transgender athletes. 

The focus is on Petrillo’s identity and barriers broken, viewing the athlete’s participation as a progressive step, with little mention of any controversy over fairness.

It highlights Petrillo’s statement: “This was a dream I had since I was a little girl.” Notably, did Petrillo really consider himself a little girl back then, given most of his life he was seemingly living  as a man?

The article features LGBTQ+ advocacy group perspectives, which argue that excluding transgender athletes is a form of discrimination. 

They also point out that not enough research has been done to fully understand how transitioning impacts athletic performance.

One thing is clear about performance though: You rarely have biological females asking to compete as males, but it has happened.

Institutional policies at play

Both sides acknowledge the differences in institutional policy but interpret them differently. 

The Telegraph criticises the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) for prioritising inclusion over fairness by allowing Petrillo to compete with testosterone levels below 10 nanomoles per litre. 

This limit is well above the typical range for biological females. Brown calls this “institutional cowardice” and asserts that World Athletics’ stricter policy—banning transgender women who have undergone male puberty—should have been applied in Petrillo’s case.

The Guardian, however, points out that sports governing bodies are still grappling with how to handle transgender athletes. While acknowledging concerns, more weight is placed on the importance of unity in sports for transgender athletes and that the IPC followed its own rules in allowing Petrillo to compete.