For many years now women have been getting tested to see if they are really females and making sure everything is fair for everyone. The testing ruined a lot of woman’s life’s and how they thought about them self’s. As what happened to the great hurdler from Spain Maria Jose Martinez Patino never doubted her sexuality once in her life, but at the 1985 World University Games she would think otherwise. Maria had taken a test before this meet and passed it. Maria had forgotten her papers that cleared her to be tested again. So for the testing of the World University Games she got tested and failed. "Meet officials told her she would not be allowed to compete, and advised her to fake an injury and leave"(Peel,1994). She didn't believe that she was a man and that there was no way this was possible. So instead of listening to the officials she went out and competed anyways and she won. With doing so they had to show her results and from there everything went downhill. Maria was expelled from the athletic residences where the athletes stayed for meets; all her scholarships were taken away, all her records she had gotten where taken away, and also her medals. She said that she felt ashamed and embarrassed, she lost friends, hope, energy and even her fiancé (Lancet,2005,p366). She was diagnosed with Androgen-Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS) which means she has an XY chromosome where she should have XX. With her it was different. "She produced manly dose of testosterone, but her body could not properly process it, so she never developed external male genitalia"(epstein,2009,p24). Since her body wasn't able to process it she wasn't at a disadvantage at all. They still took everything away from her and kicked her out of competing in track and field and any women events.
Was it fair for them to kick her out and not let her run? So she had a Y chromosome, but she couldn’t do anything with it. Which made her the same as everybody else. All her great times and getting medals where all because of hard work and dedication not because she could produce testosterone. The same thing as with Caster Semenya , if Maria had not won would she have gotten in trouble? Or would she have just been looked at as a normal runner then. Then they could say that it didn’t help her at all and then wouldn’t have had to give it out to the press. At the same time do you think it was her fault for what had happened to her? The officials did warn her not to run and yet she still did. Do you think her being so head strong caused her own down fall? She could have walked away with nobody knowing anything, but she believed too much that she was a women and went out there and won. With doing so they had to release the results. She could have saved herself from everything she had lost from her records to her fiancé. Or do you look at her as maybe someone you could look up to as believing in herself and what she believed in and not what people told her. She knew what the risks where but still had went out there. Maybe it wasn’t the best decision, but it was hers.
Maria never did stop believing that she was a women. In 2005 she wrote “I knew that I was a woman”. “I never cheated”. “Who’s to tell me any differently”. She is still a strong women and from this has overcome many things that only few will have to go through. I agree with her that if you believe you are a female or male who is to tell you different. You thought you whole life you were male or female and somebody goes and tells you that you are something different. I say stick to what you know and stay positive. Believe in yourself and in the end you will be ok.

Sources:
-Sports Illustrated-Well, Is She Or Isn’t She?
(Epstein,2005.p24-25)

-(Crown Publishers, New York, 1994, ISBN 0-517-59298-3)
http://www.medhelp.org/ais/articles/MARIA.HTM

-http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,974937,00.html