Trans Cyclist Veronica Ivy Wins Women's Golf Titles in Canada After Cycling Ban

Veronica Ivy has moved from one women's sport to another, and she's winning there too.

Ivy, 44, competed in cycling under the name Rachel McKinnon and became the first transgender-identified male to win a world cycling championship, taking masters titles in 2018 and 2019, according to the New York Post. That run ended when the Union Cycliste Internationale, cycling's international governing body, banned athletes who transitioned after male puberty from competing in women's categories starting in 2023.

The UCI's decision followed a seminar it organized on June 21 of that year, bringing together transgender and non-transgender athletes along with scientific, legal and human rights experts, according to the organization's own statement. The updated policy applies across all disciplines and categories on the UCI International Calendar. Because almost no transgender women transition before puberty, the rule effectively removed transgender women from UCI women's competition entirely.

Ivy has since taken up golf. Competing in women's amateur events in British Columbia and nationally, Ivy won both the women's BC Mid-Amateur and Mid-Master championships in June, according to the New York Post. Most recently, Ivy teamed with Nonie Marler and Aram Choi to defend the Inter-Provincial Team title at the Canadian Women's Mid-Amateur Championship, a victory reported by NewsFire.GR citing the Post's Joseph Staszewski.

The BC Mid-Am win came down to a single stroke, according to NewsFire.GR. Ivy wrote on social media afterward that golf is harder than cycling: "Cycling is maybe 5 minutes of peak stress, but golf is just 5 hours of non-stop stress, for days on end," Ivy said, a quote reported by both the New York Post and Breitbart.

Driving distance is where the competitive gap shows up most. Ivy has posted about driving the ball more than 280 yards, a distance only three golfers on the LPGA Tour currently average, with nine more averaging 275 yards or better, according to official LPGA Tour statistics cited by NewsFire.GR. Golf Canada disabled comments on its social media post congratulating Ivy, according to the same report.

Golf's major governing bodies have not adopted a policy like the UCI's. The R&A and USGA maintain separate rules for their own championships, but no source indicates Golf Canada or the sport generally has moved to restrict competitors based on transition timing the way cycling did. That leaves Ivy free to compete in women's amateur golf in Canada for now.

There's a reasonable argument on the other side of this that deserves stating plainly. Golf's amateur ranks are voluntary, locally organized, and often argued to be more about participation and camaraderie than elite performance. Some supporters of inclusive policies argue that amateur-level competition, unlike Olympic or professional cycling, isn't the same high-stakes arena where physical advantages translate into life-changing prize money or Olympic slots, and that excluding someone from a hobby-level tournament is a different question than excluding them from a world championship podium. That position is coherent, even if the driving-distance numbers here make the physical gap hard to dismiss.

The broader fight over male-born athletes in women's sports hasn't cooled off. NewsFire.GR noted that Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham faced booing from fans after publicly backing protections for girls' sports, while Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve wore a "Trans Kids Belong" shirt during a game after meeting with Cunningham. Former NBA players Enes Freedom and Royce White have both said they intend to identify as transgender and declare for the 2027 WNBA Draft, a move they've framed explicitly as a test of the league's rules.

Breitbart's coverage focused heavily on Ivy's cycling history and the UCI ban, framing the golf wins as a pattern repeating itself sport by sport. NewsFire.GR added the additional context on Golf Canada disabling comments and the LPGA distance benchmarks, along with the WNBA angle that Breitbart's piece left out entirely.

None of the three governing bodies involved, Golf Canada, the LPGA, or the USGA, has issued a policy statement addressing Ivy's case specifically. Whether Golf Canada follows cycling's lead and adopts eligibility rules based on puberty and transition timing remains an open question, and nothing in the available record indicates that decision is imminent.