Sign up for the Independent Women email for the latest news, opinion and features Get the Independent Women email for free
Transgender cyclist Rachel McKinnon has said it would be “unfair” to exclude her from female competition.
In 2018, the Canadian became the first trans athlete to win a track world title at the women's World Masters Track Cycling Championship in California .
As she prepares to defend her title at this year’s event in Manchester , McKinnon has said it is her "human right" to compete in women's sport.
“All my medical records say female,” she told Sky News .
“My doctor treats me as a female person, my racing licence says female, but people who oppose my existence still want to think of me as male.
Top 20 most admired women in 2019Show all 20 1 /20Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Michelle Obama The American lawyer and author served as the US first lady from 2009 to 2018. In March, her book Becoming was on course to become the most popular autobiography to date, having sold more than 10m copies, according to her publisher Bertelsmann.
Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Oprah Winfrey The media mogul is best known for her television presenting and philanthropic work. However, Winfrey is also an accomplished actor, having starred in The Colour Purple (for which she received a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Academy Awards), Selma , and A Wrinkle in Time .
WireImage
Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Angelina Jolie The US actor, filmmaker and humanitarian has won accolades including an Academy Award and three Golden Globe Awards. Her work spans almost four decades, with roles in films like Maleficient, Wanted, Lara Croft , and Mr & Mrs Smith .
Getty Images for The Critics' Ch
Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Queen Elizabeth II As the first child of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the royal took to the throne in 1952, meaning she has now ruled for longer than any other Monarch in British history. Her Majesty recently celebrated her 93rd birthday.
WireImage
Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Emma Watson The 29-year-old actor started out her career in the film industry, with her role as Hermoine Granger in the beloved British literary adaptation Harry Potter . The Paris-born star has since gone onto study at both Oxford and Brown University and is a UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador.
Getty
Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Malala Yousafzai The Pakistani female education activist is the youngest Nobel Prize laureate. In 2012, the Taliban attempted to assassinate Yousafzai on the bus home from school after documenting her experiences during the Taliban’s growing influencer in the region. In recent years, the 22-year-old has become a leading figure of girls' rights and is currently studying at Oxford University.
Walt Disney Television via Getty
Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Peng Liyuan Liyuan is a Chinese folk singer and artist who is also married to the current General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping. Vanity Fair listed Peng in its annual best-dressed list of 2013, with Forbes naming her the 57th most powerful woman in the world a year later.
Getty Images
Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Hillary Clinton The former politician was the first lady of the US from 1993 to 2001. Clinton was the Democratic Party nominee for president of the United States in the 2016 election but lost out on the role to then Republican Party nominee Donald Trump. She is the first woman to receive the presidential nomination of a major US political party and documented her life in politics in her best-selling book What Happened in 2017.
Getty Images
Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Tu Youyou The Chinese pharmaceutical chemist is best known for having discovered artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin – drugs used to treat malaria. She is the first mainland Chinese scientist to have received a Nobel Prize in a scientific category. Youyou is often referred to as the “three noes” winner having won the prize without a medical degree, doctorate, or training overseas.
VCG via Getty Images
Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Taylor Swift The 29-year-old singer is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with hits such as ‘We Are Never Getting Back Together’, ‘Shake It Off, and ‘Bad Blood’. Not only is the songwriter making waves in the music industry but she’s also starring in the upcoming film Cats as character Bombalurina.
Getty Images for TAS
Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Madonna Singer. Songwriter. Actor. Businesswoman. The 60-year-old has many titles under her belt with successes including hit songs such as ‘Like a Prayer’ and ‘Vogue’. The American star has also stared in films like Evita and Who’s That Girl .
Getty Images
Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Angela Merkel The 65-year-old politician currently serves as Chancellor of Germany. She was also the leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU). In October, Merkel announced that she would not seek re-election as leader of the CDU and as Chancellor in 2021.
Getty Images
Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Deepika Padukone The Indian film actor and producer is one of the highest-paid actors in the country. Last year, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Padukone regularly speaks out about issues such as feminism and depression after she was diagnosed with the medical conditions in 2014.
Getty Images for Time
Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Priyanka Chopra The Indian actor, who recently married singer Nick Jonas, is also a singer and film producer. She first hit the headlines in 2000 after winning the Miss World pageant. Chopra regularly speaks about the importance of self-love, women’s rights, and mental health awareness.
Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Ellen DeGeneres The American comedian is best known for her work as the host of her eponymously-titled talk show, The Ellen Degeneres Show. She has previously hosted the Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, and the Primetime Emmys as well as starring in films such as Finding Nemo and Finding Dory as the voice of Dory – a blue tang fish who suffers from memory loss.
Walt Disney Television via Getty
Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Aishwarya Rai Rai is an Indian actor, model and winner of the Miss World pageant in 1994. The 45-year-old has won two Filmfare Awards and was honoured with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Government of France in 2012.
WireImage
Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Sushmita Sen The Indian film actor and model was won the Miss Universe contest at the age of 18 in 1994. She has since worked in several Hindi films, and Tamil and Bengali language projects. Sen is a role model for many women around the world having adopted two girls at the age of 25 and has described being born a woman as a ‘huge award’.
WireImage
Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Theresa May The British prime minister is a politician who previously served as the British Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016. She is the second woman to have been elected to the position of prime minister in British history.
Getty Images
Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Melania Trump The former model is currently the first lady of the US. She was born in Slovenia and regularly speaks about the importance of teaching and empowering young people.
Getty Images
Top 20 most admired women in 2019 Yang Mi The Chinese actor and singer made her acting debut in the television series Tang Ming Huang. The 32-year-old is also a global ambassador for US fashion brand Michael Kors and has previously starred in an Estée Lauder campaign.
Getty Images for Stuart Weitzman
"There's a stereotype that men are always stronger than women, so people think there is an unfair advantage. By preventing trans women from competing or requiring them to take medication, you're denying their human rights."
Despite defending her right to partake in competitive sport, McKinnon did acknowledge that, as a transgender women, it is possible that she could have a physical edge over her fellow athletes.
“Is it possible? Yes it is possible. But there are elite track cyclists who are bigger than me,” McKinnon said.
“There is a range of body sizes and strength, you can be successful with massively different body shapes. To take a British example, look at Victoria Pendleton , an Olympic champion with teeny tiny legs.
"In many Olympic disciplines the gap in performance is bigger between first and eighth in a single sex event than it is between the first man and the first woman."
The decision to let McKinnon race alongside cis female (people whose gender identity matches their biological sex) competitors has been criticised by some track rivals, including Victoria Hood who previously stated: "The science is there and it says that it is unfair."
Jen Wagner-Assali, who finished third behind McKinnon at the World Championships in 2018, agreed, also calling her gold medal triumph "unfair".
However, McKinnon believes the opposite, adding that “trans inclusion is fairness”.
"This is much bigger than sport, it's a proxy for all of trans inclusion in society," she said.
Earlier this year, former Olympian Sharron Davies MBE and long-distance runner Paula Radcliffe weighed in on the debate.
Speaking to The Telegraph , Davies argued that transgender athletes had a physical advantage over cisgendered women.
“Michael Phelps has size 15 feet; your average female swimmer has size six,” she said.
“If someone is a good swimmer and they decide they want to transition to being a female, none of our girls would stand a chance.”
Similarly, Radcliffe told BBC Radio 4 that she believes athletes who were born male have “certain advantages that women will not ever get ”, in terms of physical traits such as their height and strength.
"First of all you have to explain that it’s part of a much bigger issue, and there are more elements around that, so there is a difference between transgender and DSD," the athlete said.
"There is also the different levels of transgender, so whether they’re fully transitioned, or whether they are taking hormone suppressants or not."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies