An Olympic dream falters amid track’s shifting rules

NEW YORK – Maximila Imali, a top Kenyan sprinter, did not lose her eligibility for the Paris Olympics because she cheated. She did not fail a doping test. She broke no rules.

Instead, she is set to miss the Games because she was born with a rare genetic variant that results in naturally elevated levels of testosterone.

In March 2023, the global athletics governing body ruled that Imali’s biology gave her an unfair advantage in all events against other women, effectively banning her from international competition.

As a result, the 27-year-old finds her Olympic dream in peril and her livelihood in limbo.

Unless she is willing to suppress her testosterone levels through medication or she prevails in an appeal she has filed against the new regulations, she and other intersex athletes will be banned from all events under the increasingly restrictive rules.

The application of the regulations continues to cause confusion for those affected – rule changes sometimes made with little or no warning; careers forcibly switched abruptly or ended at their peak; and embarrassment, humiliation and fears about personal safety.

“They are destroying our talent, and our dignity. I was given this talent by God and I’m using it the way it is,” Imali said recently.

Despite the uncertainty, World Athletics has imposed increasingly rigid restrictions that have interrupted or altered the careers of not only Imali but also bigger stars such as South Africa’s Caster Semenya, a two-time Olympic champion.

To continue her elite career, Imali could modify her body through medication or attempt to compete against men – another prospect she flatly refuses.

Instead, she is appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the final arbiter on global sports disputes.

Without a ruling in her favour, Imali is not eligible to compete in national or international events, which might yield prize money or sponsorship contracts.

At the same time, she and her partner are struggling to provide for their four-year-old son, care for her grandmother and pay the rent and the school fees for her two younger sisters.

In 2014, at 18, she qualified for the 800 metres at the world junior championships. But her optimism was shattered when doctors and officials affiliated with Athletics Kenya said she was ineligible to keep competing.

At a hospital, she had to undergo an examination and then told by a doctor that she could pay to have surgery to make her a “pure girl”.

Imali said that she had been confused, as she had been told only that she had high levels of testosterone. She declined the surgery.

In 2015, the CAS suspended athletics’ restrictions regarding female competitors with naturally high levels of testosterone, a condition known as hyperandrogenism.

The court, in a case involving an Indian sprinter, found insufficient evidence that hyperandrogenic athletes gained an advantage so great that they should be banned from competing against women.

In 2017, Imali resumed her career and qualified for the World Athletics Championships in the 400m. But it was halted again in 2019 after new eligibility restrictions, and Semenya lost a landmark decision.

In that case, the arbitration court upheld a ban on intersex athletes in events from 400m to the mile, unless they lowered their testosterone levels to the female range.

The decision kept Semenya from defending her 800m title at the Tokyo Olympics.

The court acknowledged at the time that the ruling was discriminatory, but said that it was necessary to ensure a “level playing field”.

Imali switched to the 100m and 200m. In March 2023, however, her career was halted again, perhaps permanently.

World Athletics announced that intersex athletes were ineligible to compete in all women’s events unless they lowered their testosterone levels to 2.5 nanomoles per litre, half as much as previously allowed.

Imali said that the rule change had left her shocked, but also feeling unsafe. She fears losing her police job, her only means of supporting her family if she cannot continue running.

“They are not destroying me alone. They are destroying the people who are depending on me,” she said. NYTIMES