[1][7] The sex chromatin test was, at the time, the first step in the sex verification process, and not intended to provide a definitive and final decision, but officials from the International Olympic Committee and the 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.
[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 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.
[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.