Michelle Ann Duff (born Michael Alan Duff on 13 December 1939) is a former Grand Prix

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike; uni (if one-wheeled); trike (if three-wheeled); quad (if four-wheeled)) is a lightweight private 1-to-2 passenger personal motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar from a saddle-style ...

road racer.

Riding

Duff's best season was in

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The First Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lynd ...

, winning the 250cc Finnish Grand Prix and finishing the year in second place to

Phil Read Phillip William Read, (1 January 1939 – 6 October 2022) was an English professional motorcycle racer. He competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing from 1961 to 1976. Read is notable for being the first competitor to win world championship ...

. Duff suffered a near-fatal crash in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and required extensive surgery and physical therapy. The recovery was documented in the 1967

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

short documentary film ''Ride for Your Life'', directed by Robin Spry.

Private life

Duff married a Finnish woman in 1963 and had a son with her the same year, and a daughter two years later. In 1984, she changed her name to Michelle and commenced transition, separating from her wife. Following

sex reassignment surgery Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their gender identity. The phrase is most often associat ...

, she wrote about her experiences as a professional motorcycle racer (note that this book is not about her life as a

trans woman A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...

) in ''Make Haste, Slowly: The Mike Duff story''.

World Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap. An empty black cell indicates that the class did not compete at that particular championship round.)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duff, Mike 1939 births Living people 125cc World Championship riders 250cc World Championship riders 350cc World Championship riders 500cc World Championship riders Canadian motorcycle racers Isle of Man TT riders Canadian transgender sportspeople LGBTQ racing drivers Sportspeople from Toronto Transgender sportswomen 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people 21st-century Canadian sportswomen 20th-century Canadian sportswomen