McKinnon says the scale of the reaction against her achievement took her by surprise.
“What people were saying wasn’t surprising but the scale of the reaction was shocking,” she says. “A lot of the negative reaction was from those who weren’t really interested in women’s sport but more a conduit for expressing their outrage at trans women.
“I received well over 100,000 hate messages on Twitter, physical hate mail at my job and hate via email too, so I had to change how I used social media in light of that harassment.
“I think my emotions afterwards were one of disappointment that we weren’t further along than I hoped.”
McKinnon says that, among the hundreds of supportive messages, the really meaningful ones are those from trans people, who have said her success has inspired them to get back into sport.
Both Martin and McKinnon say they were on the verge of quitting their sports after transition.
“Nobody should be denied the right to play sport,” says Martin. “Sport has so many health benefits and it unites people and gives them a sense of well-being and connection from playing in a team.
“Walking away from sport is common in the trans community, so to try and make divisions like this is sad.”
McKinnon adds: “People think this is a new topic, that there isn’t decades of data that we are drawing upon. It’s not. Trans people have been competing for decades, few of us make it to the highest level and even fewer of us ever win. So celebrate when we get there, don’t revile.
“I’m immensely proud of what I’ve accomplished and I’m not done yet. The Masters championships are in England and I want to defend my title.
“And I want to try and make the Olympics, that dream isn’t done. It’s a long shot, maybe impossible, but I want to get to a place where we celebrate monumental achievements that haven’t been done before.”
