Maria José Martínez-Patiño

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Maria José Martínez-Patiño (born 10 July 1961) is a Spanish former hurdler, whose dismissal from the Spanish Olympic team in 1986 for failing the gender test is a notable moment in the history of sex verification in sports.[1][2][3]

Martínez-Patiño was dismissed after a competition that would have set her up for participation at the

IAAF license successfully and was able to compete for participation in the 1992 Olympics. Since then she has written about her experience, and her test and its fallout has become a highly publicized and frequently cited case concerning sex testing as well as the privacy of athletes.[5]

Athletic career

Martínez-Patiño participated in the 100 metres hurdles, where her best time is 13.71 (Madrid 1983). Her best performance in international competition was 13.78, at the 1983 World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki.[6]

Sex testing

Martínez-Patiño is an

International Association of Athletics Federations routinely advised athletes to fake an injury after such a test so they could withdraw from competition quietly and protect their privacy.[note 1] This is what Martínez-Patiño was advised to do, and she complied.[8] Two months later she received a letter that classified her as male, citing her karyotype, 46,XY, though any perceived advantage she could be said to have is negated by her AIS: "she was disqualified for an advantage that she did not have".[9]

In 1986, she entered the 60 metres hurdles event in the Spanish national championships but was told that she could either withdraw quietly or be denounced in public. She competed and won, and was punished in the Spanish press. She lost her scholarship and her athletic residency, besides paying a high personal price by losing her privacy and her fiancé.[11] She continued to fight her expulsion: in 1988 she was defended by the genetic scientist Albert de la Chapelle;[note 2] and her IAAF license was restored three months later. She tried to qualify for the 1992 Olympics, but fell short by one-tenth of a second.[9]

Published works

Martínez-Patiño described her experience in "Personal Account: A Woman Tried and Tested", published by The Lancet in 2005.[11] In "Reexamining Rationales of 'Fairness': An Athlete and Insider's Perspective on the New Policies on Hyperandrogenism in Elite Female Athletes" published by the American Journal of Bioethics in 2012, Martínez-Patiño and co-author Hida Viloria discussed current sex testing practices in sport.[13]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The public humiliation of Ewa Kłobukowska, a Polish sprinter who had been declared a man in 1967, caused an outcry which led to a change in IOC policy.[10]
  2. JAMA in 1986 that "the present screening method is both inaccurate and discriminatory".[12]

References

  1. ^ a b Zeigler, Cyd (7 September 2011). "Moment #27: María José Martínez-Patiño kicked off Spanish track team, titles stripped". Outsports. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  2. New York Times
    .
  3. ^ "Caster Semenya expected to be affected by IAAF rule changes". BBC Sport. 2018-04-26. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  4. ^ Bardin, Jon (30 July 2012). "Olympic Games and the tricky science of telling men from women". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  5. ISBN 9780840032041
    .
  6. International Association of Athletics Federations
    . Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  7. ^
    ISBN 9780470756850
    . Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  8. ^
    ISBN 9780813528205
    . Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  9. ^
    ISBN 9780252095962
    .
  10. ISBN 9780230367463
    . Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  11. ^
    S2CID 8742433
    .
  12. S2CID 26775385
    .
  13. S2CID 20865730
    .

External links
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