Transgender Cyclist Rachel McKinnon Keeps Smashing Women’s Records

Transgender Cyclist Rachel McKinnon continues to smash women’s cycling records, the latest being a “world record” in the women’s 200m sprint.

McKinnon, 37, not only set the record in the 35-39 category but also won the 200m gold medal at the Masters Track Cycling World Championships on Sunday. Canadian McKinnon beat out American Dawn Orwick, and Denmark’s Kirsten Herup Sovang, who took silver and bronze behind McKinnon.

Dr. Rachel McKinnon, who was born a man, also won the 2018 UCI Masters Track Cycling World Championships in Los Angeles in 2018, among other events.

But not everyone was thrilled by the big win.

Jennifer Wagner-Assali, a competitor who lost to McKinnon in the past — but did not race last weekend — called McKinnon’s win “unfair,” the Times reported.

“It was an unfair race, and I accepted that when I pinned on the number, and I tried to do my best to overcome the unfairness,” Wagner-Assali said of McKinnon’s dominance over natural-born female racers.

“I do feel that hard-fought freedoms for women’s sport are being eroded. If we continue to let this happen, there will be men’s sports and co-ed sports, but there won’t be any women’s sports,” Wagner-Assali added.

Wagener-Assari also said that if men claiming to be women continue to dominate women’s sports, then many young girls won’t even bother to get into sports. “I see little girls competing . . . and I don’t want them to have to fight this issue,” she said

McKinnon, though, rebuffed the charge that she was dominating the women’s sport. “I haven’t won any Olympic medals. I haven’t won any elite world championships,” McKinnon said.

Before Sunday’s race, McKinnon defended the right of transgenders to compete alongside natural-born women saying that “preventing trans women from competing is denying their human rights.”

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.