Sports
Transgender Paralympian fires back at JK Rowling, says critical comments rooted in 'transphobia'
Valentina Petrillo, a transgender Paralympian who competed against women at the Paralympic Games in Paris, fired back at criticism levied from J.K. Rowling for participating in the event.
Petrillo’s eligibility on the women’s side of the Paralympics in Paris caused backlash in the weeks leading up to the Games. Petrillo competed in the T12 400-meter sprint. The Italian runner was diagnosed with a degenerative eye condition known as Stargardt disease as a teenager and began transitioning from male to female in 2019.
Italy’s Valentina Petrillo during the women’s 400-meter semi-final at the Stade de France at the Paris Summer Paralympic Games. (Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images)
The “Harry Potter” author wrote on X last week that Petrillo was cheating. Petrillo fired back in an interview with The Times of London.
“JK Rowling is only concerned about the fact that I use the female toilet, but she doesn’t know anything about me,” Petrillo told the outlet.
Petrillo blamed the criticism on a world allegedly rooted in “prejudice and transphobia.”
AUSTRALIAN B-GIRL SAYS SHE EXPECTED TO ‘GET BEATEN’ AT PARIS OLYMPICS IN FIRST INTERVIEW SINCE CONTROVERSY
Valentina Petrillo prepares to compete at the Stade de France Stadium, during the Paris Paralympics, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Jackson Ranger)
While World Athletics banned trans athletes from competing in women’s events if they transitioned after puberty last year, World Para Athletics still allows transgender athletes to participate as long as they declare that their gender identity for sporting purposes is female and provide evidence that their testosterone levels have been below 10 nanomoles per liter of blood for at least 12 months prior to their first competition.
“Since 2015, when the IOC opened the Olympics to transgender people, there has only been one person who competed, Laurel Hubbard,” Petrillo added. “And there has only been one [openly transgender] person that has participated at the Paralympics, me. So all of this fear that trans people will destroy the world [of women’s sport] actually does not exist.
“People said [lots of] men would go to compete as women just so they could win, but that has not happened at all. It is just transphobia.”
Rowling fired back at Petrillo after the interview was published.
J. K. Rowling arrives for the Guinness Six Nations match at the Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, on Feb. 24, 2024. (Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty Images)
“Yeah, no. That’s not the only thing I, or any of the other millions of women concerned about the destruction of female categories, boundaries and rights, are concerned about,” she wrote on X.
Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report.
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Sports
Toronto Maple Leafs top pick Gavin McKenna reveals that he’s changing his jersey number
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Toronto Maple Leafs No. 1 draft pick Gavin McKenna has already been on the ice with the team as it held its development camp this week, but the highly-touted rookie is going to have to make a big change for this fall.
His number.
When he was playing for the Western Hockey League’s Medicine Hat Tigers and then again at Penn State this past season, McKenna wore the No. 72.
THE TALLEST PLAYER EVER SELECTED IN THE NHL BLEW MINDS IN HIS DEBUT WITH THE SAN JOSE SHARKS
Toronto Maple Leafs top pick Gavin McKenna has revealed that he’ll be opting for a new number for his rookie campaign. (Photo by Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)
The expectation was that McKenna would wear No. 72 with the Maple Leafs, and he did so this week at development camp. Plenty of fans have also already ordered No. 72 jerseys with his name on the back.
On most rosters, No. 72 is unique enough that he wouldn’t run into any issues wearing it. However, on July 1, the Leafs signed two-time Stanley Cup champion goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who has worn No. 72 for most of his career, except during his first two seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers, when he wore No. 35.
So, some were wondering how this would work out. Would the Leafs want their new franchise player to get his pick of the number litter, or would they defer to a two-time Vezina winner?
FLYERS MAKE STUNNING OFFER SHEET FOR DUCKS STAR LEO CARLSSON IN BLOCKBUSTER NHL MOVE
Gavin McKenna wore No. 72 in juniors, as well as last season at Penn State. (Photo by Richard T Gagnon/Getty Images)
Well, it turns out that McKenna will be the one swapping numbers, and he’ll be switching to No. 92 this season.
McKenna had to get creative here because the obvious number changes were a no-go in Toronto. Adding 7 and 2 would be 9, but that was retired in honor of Charlie Conacher and Ted Kennedy.
Another option would’ve been to flip the digits and go with No. 27, but that was retired in honor of Frank Mahovlich and Darryl Sittler.
ALEX OVECHKIN SIGNS A ONE-YEAR DEAL TO RETURN FOR ANOTHER NHL SEASON WITH THE CAPITALS
So, 92 it is.
However, McKenna reached out to one of the three previous players to wear the number, Jeff O’Neill, to ask whether he was comfortable with him using it.
It’s fair to say he was down with the idea.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
McKenna will be a key piece of a Maple Leafs team that is looking to bounce back after a nightmare 2025-26 campaign that saw them finish last in the Atlantic Division.
Sports
Dodgers’ Eliezer Alfonzo praying his sister and stepmother will be found in Venezuela
It’ll be the culmination of nine minor-league seasons. But Eliezer Alfonzo‘s major-league debut on Sunday won’t include his family watching from Dodger Stadium.
Alfonzo’s younger sister, Eliana, and stepmother, Patricia, have been missing since last month when earthquakes caused widespread devastation in his home country of Venezuela.
“I’ve been trying to support my dad a lot, every day talking to him, trying to be with him,” Alfonzo said of the elder Eliezer Alfonzo, a retired major-league catcher. “It’s a little tough from here because I would like to be there with him, supporting him every day.”
His father, of course, would love to be in attendance for his son’s debut. He told him as much when he heard the Dodgers were calling him up.
The Dodgers switched their backup catchers Saturday, optioning Chuckie Robinson. They saw an opportunity to give Alfonzo some runway behind Dalton Rushing, with starting catcher Will Smith’s stay on the injured list expected to extend through the All-Star break.
The elder Eliezer Alfonzo, however, is doing whatever he can to locate his wife and daughter. Their dog was found alive, which gave the younger Eliezer Alfonzo hope.
“We’ve just gotta stay together as a family, as a country,” Alfonzo said. “Because I feel like we’re a beautiful country, we’re a really beautiful people over there. It’s not just about my family, it’s all families that have lost people already. But we’ve got hope. We just pray, we ask God to give them back to us alive.”
Alfonzo’s locker in the clubhouse is next to countryman Miguel Rojas’ stall. Rojas’ wife, Mariana, and their two children were in Venezuela, planning to renew Mariana’s passport and seek Venezuelan citizenship for their children, when the earthquakes hit. They managed to stay safe and have returned to the U.S.
“I just want to be here for him,” Rojas said. “At the end of the day, that’s the best thing I can do for him, is being a good teammate and being a friend for him. Because I know there’s going to be ups and downs. He’s going to have a lot of time to be caught [up] in baseball, and that’s going to probably take his mind away from stuff. But sometimes he’s probably going to feel weak, and he’s going to start thinking about his family. So I’m going to be here, I’m right next to him. And that’s what I told him.”
Rojas, who played against the elder Eliezer Alfonzo for years in Venezuela, reached out Saturday morning and promised him he’d save the ball from his son’s first major-league hit.
Sports
Kylian Mbappé’s seventh goal of the World Cup lifts France past Paraguay in physical Round of 16 match
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
The United States may not have been in action on Independence Day, but France — who fittingly played an important role in the Revolutionary War — was on the pitch in Philadelphia against Paraguay in a massive Round of 16 clash for a trip to the quarterfinals.
It was a hot day in the birthplace of our nation, and that made things difficult for both teams in more ways than one.
While Paraguay is a great squad, they were significant underdogs against a heavily favored French team led by superstar Kylian Mbappé, who has been lighting it up this tournament.
THIS ‘AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL’ RENDITION BEFORE THE FRANCE VS PARAGUAY MATCH WILL GIVE YOU GOOSEBUMPS
French and Paraguayan players get into a shoving match during their Round of 16 match on Saturday in Philadelphia. (Kyle Ross-Imagn Images)
Obviously, the heat itself is a factor, but it also made for a slower pitch, something that was believed to play into the hands of Paraguay.
However, most of the action in the first half was played on their end as France put the pressure on through the first half hour of the match.
It was intense, and that intensity boiled over in the 35th minute with some pushing and shoving after Mbappé and Paraguay’s Andrés Cubas started a wild shoving match.
VAR DENIES CROATIA’S GAME-TYING GOAL AS CRISTIANO RONALDO LEADS PORTUGAL TO ROUND OF 16
But while the intensity ramped up — and stayed high for pretty much the entire game — Paraguay weathered the storm and had every reason to feel good about reaching halftime with the game scoreless.
France got some more scoring opportunities in the early part of the second half, including a near-breakaway for Mbappé.
France’s Kylian Mbappe scored the go-ahead and ultimately game-winning goal against Paraguay on a penalty kick. (James Lang-Imagn Images)
In the 67th minute, France was awarded a penalty kick for a foul against Desire Doue that had to go to VAR for review, and it was Mbappé who took it.
MESSI, ARGENTINA AVOID A SHOCKING UPSET IN WILD KNOCKOUT STAGE MATCH AGAINST CAPE VERDE
Mbappé has tended to do most of his damage in the second half, and that trend continued here with him drilling the penalty past Paraguay goaltender Orlando Gill.
That was his 19th career World Cup goal, and his seventh of this tournament alone, tying him with Argentina’s Lionel Messi for the tournament lead.
Paraguay seemed to fade after the Mbappé goal, but turned it on again late, forcing Mike Maignan to make his first save of the day about 89 and a half minutes into the match.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
It seemed like Paraguay’s plan was to try and get a rise out of the French, and they succeeded in drawing three yellow cards. In fact, they even tried to keep that going after the match with players meeting near midfield for some more pushing and shoving.
But France is moving on, and they will take on Morocco in a quarterfinal match on Thursday in Boston.
-
Los Angeles, Ca56 minutes agoHuntington Park announces street closures ahead of Mexico World Cup match
-
Detroit, MI1 hour agoMallory McMorrow drops out of Michigan’s US Senate race
-
San Francisco, CA1 hour agoWaymo Vehicle Catches Fire in San Francisco
-
Dallas, TX1 hour agoDallas police and fire teams seize of nearly a ton of illegal fireworks
-
Miami, FL2 hours agoTriple shooting, crash sends adults to hospital, Miramar police say
-
Boston, MA2 hours agoAfter monthlong break, Boston Legacy FC battles back to earn a draw with Bay FC – The Boston Globe
-
Denver, CO2 hours agoDenver airport to add underground walkways between concourses – The Points Guy
-
Seattle, WA2 hours agoREADER REPORT: ‘My hero’