Transgender Cyclist Who Set Women's World Record Wouldn't Have Qualified For Men's Championship

Timothy Meads | October 21, 2019 11:00 AM

Rachel McKinnon is a professional Canadian cyclist who was born a biological male, but now identifies as a female. According to Union Cyclist Internationale Masters Track Championship rules, McKinnon therefore is allowed to compete against women instead of against men. McKinnon has previously claimed that being born a male but racing against women is not only fair, but a human right for transgender individuals. McKinnon won a second Women's Sprint World Championship over the weekend, but the Canadian's qualifying time for this competition would not have even been fast enough to qualify for the men's championship.

"The Canadian returned to defend the title in the 2019 Masters Worlds in Manchester last weekend, where she set a new world best time in qualifying and went on to take gold in the sprint for a second consecutive year," according to Cycling Weekly.

The world record McKinnon set in the qualifying round was 11.649 for the female age 35-39 group. In the male 35-39 age group, the top qualifying round time was 10.498.

In fact, if McKinnon had competed against these men instead of women, the Canadian's time would not have even finished in the top 10. McKinnon would have placed 11th, right behind Poland's Adrian Swiderski, who posted a time of 11.386. This means McKinnon would not have been allowed to compete in the men's sprint championship.

The cyclist recently claimed that if you are opposed to biological men competing against women, then "you're a "loser."

"All my medical records say female," McKinnon said in an interview last week. “My doctor treats me as a female person, my racing license says female, but people who oppose my existence still want to think of me as male...So, if we want to say, that I believe you’re a woman for all of society, except for this massive central part that is sport, then that’s not fair."