'I Had to Remove My Clothes' - Kenyan Sprinter Recounts Horror of First DSD Test as a Teenager

Kenyan sprinter Maximilla Imali has opened up about her first horrific encounter as an athlete with the Differences of Sex Development (DSD).

Athletes with DSD are legally female, but have internal testes and testosterone levels in the male range. World Athletics has long advocated for fairness in the sport, coming up with different techniques to ensure they achieve their goal.

Just before the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan, the governing body announced that it will conduct a one-time SRY gene test for all athletes competing in the female category. The move will be to verify biological sex.

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However, before then, a series of developments had been made, with Kenya’s budding sprinter, Maximilla Imali, being a victim.

Maximilla Imali, appearing on Sporty FM, revealed that growing up, she identified as a female and her mother raised her as one.

Becoming an athlete would, however, shake her belief a bit, following World Athletics’ rules that would subject her to a series of tests.

The former Africa 100m silver medallist revealed that there is always a debate about athletes with higher testosterone levels performing better, but in the real sense, training is what makes the major difference.

“Intersex people were just born like that, it’s not like someone grew up and decided to change how they look. I was born a woman, and you cannot just come from somewhere and decide for me,” Maximilla Imali revealed.

“At the moment, you can’t convince me that when I step on the track, I’m going to win a race…I haven’t trained; it’s all about training. Some women have high testosterone, and they even have kids.”

Maximilla Imali went down memory lane to 2014, when she had just started making a name for herself in high school.

Imali revealed that she was called by officials from Athletics Kenya, who informed her that she needed to undergo a mandatory test to determine whether she was biologically a female.

Imali pointed out that at the time, she was too young and never understood what it meant and with her naivety, she undressed in front of the male official who checked every part of her body.

“These tests affect someone very badly unless you have a very strong mindset. I remember in 2014, I was called by our federation, and when I was called, I was subjected to those tests because they got information from World Athletics that I needed to be tested,” Maximilla Imali revealed.

“I felt very bad, but then I was a kid, I was in form two, so I complied with doing the tests. It was very hard; I had to remove my clothes, they checked everything, and it was a man. It was very bad for me, I tried to explain to my mum, and it affected my mother until her passing.”

For years, World Athletics has grappled with the complex issue of regulating athletes with Differences of Sex Development (DSD).

In the early 2000s, World Athletics abandoned mandatory sex testing for all female athletes. The policy shifted to a more targeted approach, which came into sharp focus following the success of athletes like Caster Semenya.

In 2011, World Athletics introduced regulations on hyperandrogenism, requiring athletes with naturally high testosterone levels to lower them to be eligible for competition. The threshold was set at less than 10 nmol/L. This rule was later challenged and suspended by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

In 2018, the regulations were refined to target only certain running events (400m to one mile) and reduced the testosterone threshold to 5 nmol/L.

In 2023, World Athletics updated its rules again, lowering the testosterone limit for DSD athletes to 2.5 nmol/L and expanding the regulation to include all female events at the international level.

This marked a significant expansion of the policy, requiring affected athletes to undergo testosterone suppression for a continuous period of at least six months to be eligible for competition.

These rules have been highly controversial, with supporters citing the need for fair competition and critics arguing they are discriminatory and violate human rights.