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The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports
The story of the early trans athletes and Olympic bureaucrats who lit the flame for today’s culture wars.
In December 1935, Zdeněk Koubek, one of the most famous sprinters in European women’s sports, declared he was now living as a man. Around the same time, the celebrated British field athlete Mark Weston, also assigned female at birth, announced that he, too, was a man. Periodicals and radio programs across the world carried the news; both became global celebrities. A few decades later, they were all but forgotten. And in the wake of their transitions, what could have been a push toward equality became instead, through a confluence of bureaucracy, war, and sheer happenstance, the exact opposite: the now all-too-familiar panic around trans, intersex, and gender nonconforming athletes.
In The Other Olympians, Michael Waters uncovers, for the first time, the gripping true stories of Koubek, Weston, and other pioneering trans and intersex athletes from their era. With dogged research and cinematic flair, Waters also tracks how International Olympic Committee members ignored Nazi Germany’s atrocities in order to pull off the Berlin Games, a partnership that ultimately influenced the IOC’s nearly century-long obsession with surveilling and cataloging gender.
Immersive and revelatory, The Other Olympians is a groundbreaking, hidden-in-the-archives marvel, an inspiring call for equality, and an essential contribution toward understanding the contemporary culture wars over gender in sports.
In December 1935, Zdeněk Koubek, one of the most famous sprinters in European women’s sports, declared he was now living as a man. Around the same time, the celebrated British field athlete Mark Weston, also assigned female at birth, announced that he, too, was a man. Periodicals and radio programs across the world carried the news; both became global celebrities. A few decades later, they were all but forgotten. And in the wake of their transitions, what could have been a push toward equality became instead, through a confluence of bureaucracy, war, and sheer happenstance, the exact opposite: the now all-too-familiar panic around trans, intersex, and gender nonconforming athletes.
In The Other Olympians, Michael Waters uncovers, for the first time, the gripping true stories of Koubek, Weston, and other pioneering trans and intersex athletes from their era. With dogged research and cinematic flair, Waters also tracks how International Olympic Committee members ignored Nazi Germany’s atrocities in order to pull off the Berlin Games, a partnership that ultimately influenced the IOC’s nearly century-long obsession with surveilling and cataloging gender.
Immersive and revelatory, The Other Olympians is a groundbreaking, hidden-in-the-archives marvel, an inspiring call for equality, and an essential contribution toward understanding the contemporary culture wars over gender in sports.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published June 4, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 79 reviews
August 20, 2024
A super well written and researched history book about sports history I knew nothing about. Waters writes a very clear and compelling narrative about a complicated topic and includes so many facets. If you like sports, Nazi history, queer history, or stories for "hidden" figures this books does all of that and more.
May 6, 2024
THIS WAS SO FASCINATING! The Other Olympians details the stories of several athletes who publicly transitioned in the 1930s, calls for sex testing in women’s sports, and how that was tied into the Nazi Party and the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. It’s always so interesting to go back and see true stories of queer/trans individuals in history, it just makes it so clear that this is something that has always been around no matter what certain people try to say. It’s also so frustrating to see how current ideas about needing to ban trans women from women’s sports can be traced back to misinformation, fascism, and the Nazi Party.
Seriously, this book is so eye opening. I had never heard of the stories of these athletes who transitioned on the world stage. The trans men featured in the book all transitioned after competing as female athletes. This caused a stir about keeping men out of women’s sports, but none of these men wanted to go back to competing against women.
The author covers all the different conversations people were having about wanting to start sex testing for women's sports. He details how there was actually a lot of public support for the men after they transitioned, and a lot of the detractors or the people who were the most adamant about implementing sex testing came from the Nazi Party or were sympathizers. There’s a lot of discussion in the book about how sex isn’t a binary category and how these men trying to set up the rules couldn’t even really describe who they were trying to keep out of women’s sports.
I definitely recommend this book for people who are interested in LGBTQ+ history. It makes so much sense to see how the history of sex testing in women’s sports was tied to fascism, especially when thinking about who is continuing that messed up cause in the present. I ended up listening to the whole book in one day because it was just so engrossing.
Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Seriously, this book is so eye opening. I had never heard of the stories of these athletes who transitioned on the world stage. The trans men featured in the book all transitioned after competing as female athletes. This caused a stir about keeping men out of women’s sports, but none of these men wanted to go back to competing against women.
The author covers all the different conversations people were having about wanting to start sex testing for women's sports. He details how there was actually a lot of public support for the men after they transitioned, and a lot of the detractors or the people who were the most adamant about implementing sex testing came from the Nazi Party or were sympathizers. There’s a lot of discussion in the book about how sex isn’t a binary category and how these men trying to set up the rules couldn’t even really describe who they were trying to keep out of women’s sports.
I definitely recommend this book for people who are interested in LGBTQ+ history. It makes so much sense to see how the history of sex testing in women’s sports was tied to fascism, especially when thinking about who is continuing that messed up cause in the present. I ended up listening to the whole book in one day because it was just so engrossing.
Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
June 13, 2024
man. i don’t even care about sports like that and yet this slapped so supremely. if you’re gonna read a book of queer history this month, make it this one. thoughtful, well-researched, and wonderfully clear about the first transgender athletes and the origins of sex testing in sports. (surprise surprise, it’s the fucking nazis!) zdeněk koubek i would like to formally offer my hand in marriage. avery brundage i am going to dig you up so i can kill you again. this book is tremendous but it also made me so angry, and so sad.
![Profile Image for laurel [the suspected bibliophile].](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/users/1645808644i/7494844._UX200_CR0,6,200,200_.jpg)
August 22, 2024
Did the scrutiny over Imane Khelif's supposed masculinity piss you off?
Did your blood boil over Caster Semenya's exclusion and stigmatization over her intersexuality?
Did you ever wonder...why the hell are women in sports scrutinized so heavily? Why is their femininity brought up time and time again? Why are women with muscles called men and why the hell are trans women excluded from women's sports when biology is weird and trans women are women?
If you ever sat down in the dark of night and asked yourself these questions, then this is a really good starting point.
At the core is, of course, white supremacy, and laying in the root of the matter is...drumroll please *NAZIS*
YES, this book is all about Nazis.
Anywho, roll back the time...to a time when things weren't as simple as we pretend they were. It was the 1920s, and the Olympics was still figuring its shit out with regards to prestige, regulations and...more regulations. And, of course, the womenfolk. Ew, girls wanted to compete too. Yeah, there was a hefty dose of sexism.
As a response to the general exclusion of women at the Olympics, particularly in women's track and field, Alice Milliat created the Women's World Games, hosted four times between 1922 and 1934. She eventually kinda agreed to roll the Women's World Games into the Olympics, and was ousted from her position by Nazis who were gearing up for the Berlin 1936 games (who didn't really want women but also wanted to establish their white supremacy in all things but also were at a quandary because their version of femininity was dainty and wholesome and tough but in the way stereotypical Greek women were wholesome and tough—it was all geared towards motherhood).
Coupled with the sports politics going on, two very prominent athletes announced they were trans men. Zdeněk Koubek, the most famous Czech athlete, and British athlete Mark Weston, to be exact.
Their announcements sent the sports world into a tizzy.
Why were men competing in women's sports? What did this mean for world records?
Of course, Weston had already retired when he made his announcement and Koubek had no desire to compete in women's sports anymore since he wasn't a woman, but he was kept out of men's sports.
Fast forward to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which were...well. Filled with Nazis and fascism. And among the Nazis was a dude who was like, "no men in women's sports—we gotta test the women to make sure they're not men." Which. Okay. Already dubious for several reasons. The first being, why aren't they testing the men? The second being that sex and gender (conflated in 1930s as one thing) was already well known to be a nebulous and hard to define thing even without a firm grasp knowledge of chromosomes and biology.
If today's biologists have a hard time definitively defining what a woman is and is not, how the fuck are some sports dudes in the 1930s? Maybe like, listen to the individual person to tell you what their gender is, but fuck that would be way too much common sense. Nope. The 1930s sports dudes are gonna look at genitalia. And labias are, you know, famously uniform in appearance (...this is sarcasm).
Alongside Jesse Owens was Helen Herring Stephens, a six foot tall absolute beast of a woman who's womanhood was immediately questioned. Stephens won the 100m—and was immediately under scrutiny because she wasn't a stereotypical dainty waif. She was tall and had biceps, egad. The reason for the heavy scrutiny in women's track and field was because these sports had a greater participation among working class women, which often introduced a wider spectrum of gender expression.
As you can imagine, the rulings were real fucked up, and impacted cis women alongside trans women and intersex women—and the sex test requirements remain in place today. While it's generally acknowledged that certain physical traits are better for certain sports (tall people for basketball, fast twitch muscles vs slow twitch, etc), women who compete in women's sports are subjected to even more scrutiny, from character to appearance to testosterone levels—which adversely impact queer women and women of color, specifically Black women.
Wrapped up in this discussion of sports and Olympics is also the history of 1920s and 1930s Germany and the brutal crushing of "non-desirables" (read: the Holocaust). It's also a story of LGBTQ+ people, particularly trans people, in Germany, the rest of Europe and the United States, a history of women in sports, and a history of Nazis being rehabilitated and continuing on their merry, stinking white supremacist lives post-Hitler. It's a fascinating look at how history bobbles and weaves through time, how things mirror and refract, and how often nostalgia and looking back flatten nuance and depth.
Anywho, if you're interested in women's sports history and are particularly interested in trans men in sports in the 1920s and 1930s and how media (and the Nazis, don't forget them!) conflated the two subjects into a false moral panic, this is a really, really good book to read.
Did your blood boil over Caster Semenya's exclusion and stigmatization over her intersexuality?
Did you ever wonder...why the hell are women in sports scrutinized so heavily? Why is their femininity brought up time and time again? Why are women with muscles called men and why the hell are trans women excluded from women's sports when biology is weird and trans women are women?
If you ever sat down in the dark of night and asked yourself these questions, then this is a really good starting point.
At the core is, of course, white supremacy, and laying in the root of the matter is...drumroll please *NAZIS*
YES, this book is all about Nazis.
Anywho, roll back the time...to a time when things weren't as simple as we pretend they were. It was the 1920s, and the Olympics was still figuring its shit out with regards to prestige, regulations and...more regulations. And, of course, the womenfolk. Ew, girls wanted to compete too. Yeah, there was a hefty dose of sexism.
As a response to the general exclusion of women at the Olympics, particularly in women's track and field, Alice Milliat created the Women's World Games, hosted four times between 1922 and 1934. She eventually kinda agreed to roll the Women's World Games into the Olympics, and was ousted from her position by Nazis who were gearing up for the Berlin 1936 games (who didn't really want women but also wanted to establish their white supremacy in all things but also were at a quandary because their version of femininity was dainty and wholesome and tough but in the way stereotypical Greek women were wholesome and tough—it was all geared towards motherhood).
Coupled with the sports politics going on, two very prominent athletes announced they were trans men. Zdeněk Koubek, the most famous Czech athlete, and British athlete Mark Weston, to be exact.
Their announcements sent the sports world into a tizzy.
Why were men competing in women's sports? What did this mean for world records?
Of course, Weston had already retired when he made his announcement and Koubek had no desire to compete in women's sports anymore since he wasn't a woman, but he was kept out of men's sports.
Fast forward to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which were...well. Filled with Nazis and fascism. And among the Nazis was a dude who was like, "no men in women's sports—we gotta test the women to make sure they're not men." Which. Okay. Already dubious for several reasons. The first being, why aren't they testing the men? The second being that sex and gender (conflated in 1930s as one thing) was already well known to be a nebulous and hard to define thing even without a firm grasp knowledge of chromosomes and biology.
If today's biologists have a hard time definitively defining what a woman is and is not, how the fuck are some sports dudes in the 1930s? Maybe like, listen to the individual person to tell you what their gender is, but fuck that would be way too much common sense. Nope. The 1930s sports dudes are gonna look at genitalia. And labias are, you know, famously uniform in appearance (...this is sarcasm).
Alongside Jesse Owens was Helen Herring Stephens, a six foot tall absolute beast of a woman who's womanhood was immediately questioned. Stephens won the 100m—and was immediately under scrutiny because she wasn't a stereotypical dainty waif. She was tall and had biceps, egad. The reason for the heavy scrutiny in women's track and field was because these sports had a greater participation among working class women, which often introduced a wider spectrum of gender expression.
As you can imagine, the rulings were real fucked up, and impacted cis women alongside trans women and intersex women—and the sex test requirements remain in place today. While it's generally acknowledged that certain physical traits are better for certain sports (tall people for basketball, fast twitch muscles vs slow twitch, etc), women who compete in women's sports are subjected to even more scrutiny, from character to appearance to testosterone levels—which adversely impact queer women and women of color, specifically Black women.
Wrapped up in this discussion of sports and Olympics is also the history of 1920s and 1930s Germany and the brutal crushing of "non-desirables" (read: the Holocaust). It's also a story of LGBTQ+ people, particularly trans people, in Germany, the rest of Europe and the United States, a history of women in sports, and a history of Nazis being rehabilitated and continuing on their merry, stinking white supremacist lives post-Hitler. It's a fascinating look at how history bobbles and weaves through time, how things mirror and refract, and how often nostalgia and looking back flatten nuance and depth.
Anywho, if you're interested in women's sports history and are particularly interested in trans men in sports in the 1920s and 1930s and how media (and the Nazis, don't forget them!) conflated the two subjects into a false moral panic, this is a really, really good book to read.
August 1, 2024
read this months ago but "but women CAN'T be good at sports! if women are good at sports they should be BANNED from sports! like if women are too good at sports... they might be better at sports then men? and that's so unfair and scary?? to, uh, women who are bad at sports. who are 100% definitely the people we're protecting here <3" is in the Olympic news again, so, circling back to it now
Waters sets out to tell the story of a few trans men who competed in the Olympics and later had sex change operations, and through this uncovers the story of the construction of the "biological woman" as we know it today, less than a hundred years ago, during the 1936 Olympics, as part of a project to suppress and control women's sports, stabilize notions of gender that had been increasingly exploded by modern science, and advance fascism in Germany, the UK, and the United States. one is really struck by the extent to which creating an imaginary cisgender female body and persecuting women who don't adhere to it is purely about (ethno)nationalism—circling back to this later— but what feels much clearer through this story, at least to me, is how much transmisogyny is a necessary foundation for misogyny (and accordingly how much transfeminism is a necessary foundation for feminism).
as Waters moves into the future, and into various panics over sex testing at the Olympics from the '50s to the present day, he reinforces that not a single cis man (or, for that matter, trans woman) has ever participated in a women's Olympic event—and yet generation after generation of Olympic official seems entirely sure that countries have disguised men as women and snuck them into women's events. AFAB intersex people have competed in women's events! trans men whose intersex status is unknown but who had received no treatment have competed in women's events! but no trans women! and yet the idea that something about women athletes is Un-Woman In Disguise—are her legs too long? are her muscles too big? are her legs too hairy? are her breasts too small? are her genitals small enough?—lingers on, and medical science does its damnedest to invent a biological equivalent of the Rockford Peaches' little skirts.
what really caught my attention was outside the book's proper scope, and is only addressed in the last chapter—how this project begun by Nazi Germany at the '36 Olympics of inventing the "biological woman", which is the book's central concern, is basically a project of nationalism, how the US positioned its "real" woman athletes against USSR teams by rumoring that the Soviet women were in possession of illegal genders (men in women's clothing, AMAB children dosed with "female hormones", cis women who were simply not as girly as "our" women and therefore should not be allowed to compete). the borders of gender take such unbelievable effort to maintain, in '36 and today
all of this said, gonna be real, like 40% of my takeaway from this book is how hot Zdeněk Koubek was. so well-written. so well-researched. so interesting. so relevant to the modern day, not only in re: struggles over sex differentiation in sport but to transgender people and feminism overall. Zdeněk Koubek was so unbelievably batshit hot
Waters sets out to tell the story of a few trans men who competed in the Olympics and later had sex change operations, and through this uncovers the story of the construction of the "biological woman" as we know it today, less than a hundred years ago, during the 1936 Olympics, as part of a project to suppress and control women's sports, stabilize notions of gender that had been increasingly exploded by modern science, and advance fascism in Germany, the UK, and the United States. one is really struck by the extent to which creating an imaginary cisgender female body and persecuting women who don't adhere to it is purely about (ethno)nationalism—circling back to this later— but what feels much clearer through this story, at least to me, is how much transmisogyny is a necessary foundation for misogyny (and accordingly how much transfeminism is a necessary foundation for feminism).
as Waters moves into the future, and into various panics over sex testing at the Olympics from the '50s to the present day, he reinforces that not a single cis man (or, for that matter, trans woman) has ever participated in a women's Olympic event—and yet generation after generation of Olympic official seems entirely sure that countries have disguised men as women and snuck them into women's events. AFAB intersex people have competed in women's events! trans men whose intersex status is unknown but who had received no treatment have competed in women's events! but no trans women! and yet the idea that something about women athletes is Un-Woman In Disguise—are her legs too long? are her muscles too big? are her legs too hairy? are her breasts too small? are her genitals small enough?—lingers on, and medical science does its damnedest to invent a biological equivalent of the Rockford Peaches' little skirts.
what really caught my attention was outside the book's proper scope, and is only addressed in the last chapter—how this project begun by Nazi Germany at the '36 Olympics of inventing the "biological woman", which is the book's central concern, is basically a project of nationalism, how the US positioned its "real" woman athletes against USSR teams by rumoring that the Soviet women were in possession of illegal genders (men in women's clothing, AMAB children dosed with "female hormones", cis women who were simply not as girly as "our" women and therefore should not be allowed to compete). the borders of gender take such unbelievable effort to maintain, in '36 and today
all of this said, gonna be real, like 40% of my takeaway from this book is how hot Zdeněk Koubek was. so well-written. so well-researched. so interesting. so relevant to the modern day, not only in re: struggles over sex differentiation in sport but to transgender people and feminism overall. Zdeněk Koubek was so unbelievably batshit hot
June 15, 2024
this book is SO good. as a reluctant reader of non fiction, I found this so readable and engaging. easily the most I’ve ever cared about the Olympics!
Read
July 14, 2024thank you fsg for the arc!!
the other olympians traces the history of trans and intersex athletes. while focusing specifically on events leading up to and encompassing the berlin olympics in 1936, michael waters manages to expertly weave together the history of sex testing in sports with the modern implications of doing so.
full disclosure: i do not care about the olympics. all of it is a bit too patriotic for my liking (lol). but seeing a nonbinary athlete win the 1500m at the olympic trials this year absolutely moved me. so reading this book at this specific moment in time just really worked. at this point in time, this book holds tremendous value and isn't afraid to point out the absolute evil at the core of sex testing policies.
i did find the structure of the beginning of this book kind of hard to follow, although i understand why. there was simply a lot to set up and a lot of historical figures to introduce. i wish this information was delivered more smoothly, but i was able to find my footing as the book progressed.
this quote in particular spoke to me (technically quoting from an arc, nobody yell at me):
"sex testing, from the start, was never about an actual threat to women's sports. it was always about the perception of a threat; the ambient sense of panic around femininity, masculinity, and gender transition; the feeling that something fundamental was shifting in the relationship between gender and sports and that the only way to stop it was to forcibly examine the bodies of anyone deemed suspect. it was policy rooted not in real harm, but in abstract fear."
out now from fsg!! educate yourselves!! and trans rights are human rights!! <3
the other olympians traces the history of trans and intersex athletes. while focusing specifically on events leading up to and encompassing the berlin olympics in 1936, michael waters manages to expertly weave together the history of sex testing in sports with the modern implications of doing so.
full disclosure: i do not care about the olympics. all of it is a bit too patriotic for my liking (lol). but seeing a nonbinary athlete win the 1500m at the olympic trials this year absolutely moved me. so reading this book at this specific moment in time just really worked. at this point in time, this book holds tremendous value and isn't afraid to point out the absolute evil at the core of sex testing policies.
i did find the structure of the beginning of this book kind of hard to follow, although i understand why. there was simply a lot to set up and a lot of historical figures to introduce. i wish this information was delivered more smoothly, but i was able to find my footing as the book progressed.
this quote in particular spoke to me (technically quoting from an arc, nobody yell at me):
"sex testing, from the start, was never about an actual threat to women's sports. it was always about the perception of a threat; the ambient sense of panic around femininity, masculinity, and gender transition; the feeling that something fundamental was shifting in the relationship between gender and sports and that the only way to stop it was to forcibly examine the bodies of anyone deemed suspect. it was policy rooted not in real harm, but in abstract fear."
out now from fsg!! educate yourselves!! and trans rights are human rights!! <3
July 2, 2024
Fascinating, well written and very well researched - the story of several trans athletes as well as a history of the early olympics (specifically through the lens of gender). Definitely one of the best non-fiction books I’ve read.
Read
June 8, 2024GENDER BENDING OLYMPIANS TELL HITLER TO GET FUCKED!
This book could not have come at a more timely moment, and I'm so glad it did! It's hard to believe that the origins of sex testing athletes are so forgotten. But as is clear globally, in many different ways right now, the world more than failed to reckon with Nazism and its legacy—over and over, 20th century-style fascism, biological essentialism, anti-semitism and heteropatriarchy are misremembered. This book explores with precision the ways in which a lack of reckoning allowed these evils to live on, shifting in form but not defeated. Nazi or Nazi-sympathetic IOC officials who set in motion sex testing were never held responsible for their Nazism (@ Mr. Brundage, eat shit!), and thus the origins of the sex testing regime receded, the practice was pushed along by a few effective spurts of misinformation, and sex testing was allowed to become "the way things are done."
In addition to its timeliness, I appreciate the deeply committed research that made this book possible. Waters pulls from an enormous archive, bringing to life the actions, desires, struggles and hypocrisy of Olympic athletes and their tormenters. If his goal is to unflatten this moment in queer history—to add depth to figures who transgressed boundaries of gender and sexuality long before Love is Love—he succeeds completely.
This book could not have come at a more timely moment, and I'm so glad it did! It's hard to believe that the origins of sex testing athletes are so forgotten. But as is clear globally, in many different ways right now, the world more than failed to reckon with Nazism and its legacy—over and over, 20th century-style fascism, biological essentialism, anti-semitism and heteropatriarchy are misremembered. This book explores with precision the ways in which a lack of reckoning allowed these evils to live on, shifting in form but not defeated. Nazi or Nazi-sympathetic IOC officials who set in motion sex testing were never held responsible for their Nazism (@ Mr. Brundage, eat shit!), and thus the origins of the sex testing regime receded, the practice was pushed along by a few effective spurts of misinformation, and sex testing was allowed to become "the way things are done."
In addition to its timeliness, I appreciate the deeply committed research that made this book possible. Waters pulls from an enormous archive, bringing to life the actions, desires, struggles and hypocrisy of Olympic athletes and their tormenters. If his goal is to unflatten this moment in queer history—to add depth to figures who transgressed boundaries of gender and sexuality long before Love is Love—he succeeds completely.
August 4, 2024
quite torn about this one! overall, it's well-written and it portrays an incredibly interesting and relevant topic in a compelling way, and i would generally very much recommend it as a solid nonfiction (especially with the current olympic Events re: boxing as a backdrop). HOWEVER there were small things that took me out a bit. waters has a tendency of a typically american generalization or vagueness that can read as a mistake to a more critical reader - ex. he mentions czechs as "not having history or national identity" pre: czechoslovakia, which is lowkey insane (and i wrote my bachelor thesis on czech identity in the 1880s, so...), or states that something happened "in 1938, around the time hitler invaded poland". no king, it's not "around the time" - thats a different year! moreover, there some inconsistencies/mistakes with the spelling of the more difficult names, and unfortunately for mr waters, these are the names i have expertise in - polish and dutch. im also quite sure he declinates the name of koubek's wife wrongly as well. all in all, i imagine small mishaps like this could be a result of rushed editing to finish in time before olympics - and in general, i'm glad i could read it right now, but it still bugged me a bit
July 24, 2024
Michael Waters put together a fascinating outline of history that intersects sports, trans identities, and world affairs in a way that showcases how intricately linked the relationship between transphobia and fascism truly is (which is not to say that transphobia only comes out of fascism). Waters tells the stories of multiple trans, intersex, and queer athletes that aren’t just rife with tragedy, but surprisingly some acceptance in 1930s Europe. I think many of us, even with queer and trans identities, have thought of the modern day as the most progressive as far as acceptance for our communities go; however, Waters reminds us that without the Nazi regime, who knows where our understanding and acceptance of trans identities could be in this moment? highly suggest for an eerie account of similar transphobic issues we see today, but occurring over 80 years ago.
August 17, 2024
This book is incredibly well researched and written. I feel like I learned a lot but was always engaged in the narrative. Also very timely with the Olympics. Would highly recommend this read! I think one of those books that if everyone read the world would be a better place.
August 21, 2024
3.75
Overall I did like this, but it had quite a few distracting shortcomings.
I really enjoyed learning about Zdeněk Koubek and Mark Weston. It was really cool to see that the general public was fairly accepting of these trans athletes, and were just curious more than anything, even though they might have used language considered offensive today. Waters wrote in the author's note that this book is "a story of queer possibilities," showing that history isn't always linear, and not every time and place in the past was terrible to be queer. I think he really succeeded in this, showing the various reactions to trans athletes (mostly positive, though a few negative ones as well). And that is the major success of this book.
I also really enjoyed learning more about the history of the Olympics, especially Alice Milliat and the Women's World Games pre-Olympics. She did so much for female athletes in the face of so much backlash, with very little recognition. She was so inspiring. It was also great to see her support Koubek post-transition—no TERFs here. And while it was absolutely infuriating, I'm glad I know now about the bigoted history of the IOC. Avery Brundage was a fucking awful person and he does not deserve to rest in peace. It did make me question the entire concept of an Olympics though, if it has such terrible roots as this, full of Nazis and eugenicists and that ilk. Have we really moved past that legacy today? I don't think so.
However, where the book lost me is in its extreme repetitiveness. Waters constantly mentioned that the men in the IOC making decisions "didn't seem to think or care about [insert author's argument's here]." I understand the author felt the need to rebut these people's awful views, but it got so tiring. I GET IT, they were bigots, you don't need to explain that every time you describe one of their awful decisions! There was even one quote of Brundage's where he said women athletes were ugly and probably mostly men anyway that was repeated verbatim twice and referenced multiple times. Again, I get it, he was terrible. Please stop repeating things! I also think the author only really had one argument—that sex testing had fascist roots that reverberate today. And that was repeated over and over again. Again.... I get it.
The book was organized chronologically, which normally I do like, but it bounced around all the various historical figures so much that it was hard to keep track of people's life stories. The author discussed many other trans athletes living around the same time as Koubek and Weston, and while I liked learning about them as well, there were so many of them that were mentioned so sporadically that I would forget them in between mentions and need a refresh every time.
And while I do think for the most part that this book was very well sourced, there were quite a few scenes of pure dialogue between historical figures with no cited sources. How is the author coming up with these intricate scenes, complete with descriptions of the people's emotions at the time? That's a major pet peeve of mine in non-fiction. And there was also the fact that Koubek's writings seemed very unreliable, which Waters mentioned repeatedly in the footnotes... that are not read in the audiobook. So an audio-only reader would get a completely different impression of Koubek's story, thinking everything he said was accurate and that is just not the case (really wish non-fiction audiobooks would read out footnotes).
Also, considering this book had a major focus on Nazis, I think Waters' analysis of the antisemitism of the time was pretty lacking. He pretty much glossed over the actual Holocaust. While he did mention the discrimination happening towards Jews in the 1930s, I think he should have emphasized that it literally ended in a genocide. It seems like he assumes his readers would know that already, and while I would hope everyone reading this would know that, in a book whose main argument is that sex testing is bad because of its origin with the Nazis, their atrocities should be clearly outlined. And to be honest, I think he also overemphasized the Nazi's homophobia in comparison to their antisemitism, as if they were two separate things. When in reality, they were linked—the Nazis considered homosexuality to be a "Jewish perversion." They didn't just happen to hate both queer people and Jewish people—they hated queer people specifically because they blamed Jews for their existence.
Most of this review is devoted to my criticisms, but I still overall enjoyed this and am really glad it exists. The author had a great idea, but this book would have been a lot stronger if it was more tightly edited and sourced.
Overall I did like this, but it had quite a few distracting shortcomings.
I really enjoyed learning about Zdeněk Koubek and Mark Weston. It was really cool to see that the general public was fairly accepting of these trans athletes, and were just curious more than anything, even though they might have used language considered offensive today. Waters wrote in the author's note that this book is "a story of queer possibilities," showing that history isn't always linear, and not every time and place in the past was terrible to be queer. I think he really succeeded in this, showing the various reactions to trans athletes (mostly positive, though a few negative ones as well). And that is the major success of this book.
I also really enjoyed learning more about the history of the Olympics, especially Alice Milliat and the Women's World Games pre-Olympics. She did so much for female athletes in the face of so much backlash, with very little recognition. She was so inspiring. It was also great to see her support Koubek post-transition—no TERFs here. And while it was absolutely infuriating, I'm glad I know now about the bigoted history of the IOC. Avery Brundage was a fucking awful person and he does not deserve to rest in peace. It did make me question the entire concept of an Olympics though, if it has such terrible roots as this, full of Nazis and eugenicists and that ilk. Have we really moved past that legacy today? I don't think so.
However, where the book lost me is in its extreme repetitiveness. Waters constantly mentioned that the men in the IOC making decisions "didn't seem to think or care about [insert author's argument's here]." I understand the author felt the need to rebut these people's awful views, but it got so tiring. I GET IT, they were bigots, you don't need to explain that every time you describe one of their awful decisions! There was even one quote of Brundage's where he said women athletes were ugly and probably mostly men anyway that was repeated verbatim twice and referenced multiple times. Again, I get it, he was terrible. Please stop repeating things! I also think the author only really had one argument—that sex testing had fascist roots that reverberate today. And that was repeated over and over again. Again.... I get it.
The book was organized chronologically, which normally I do like, but it bounced around all the various historical figures so much that it was hard to keep track of people's life stories. The author discussed many other trans athletes living around the same time as Koubek and Weston, and while I liked learning about them as well, there were so many of them that were mentioned so sporadically that I would forget them in between mentions and need a refresh every time.
And while I do think for the most part that this book was very well sourced, there were quite a few scenes of pure dialogue between historical figures with no cited sources. How is the author coming up with these intricate scenes, complete with descriptions of the people's emotions at the time? That's a major pet peeve of mine in non-fiction. And there was also the fact that Koubek's writings seemed very unreliable, which Waters mentioned repeatedly in the footnotes... that are not read in the audiobook. So an audio-only reader would get a completely different impression of Koubek's story, thinking everything he said was accurate and that is just not the case (really wish non-fiction audiobooks would read out footnotes).
Also, considering this book had a major focus on Nazis, I think Waters' analysis of the antisemitism of the time was pretty lacking. He pretty much glossed over the actual Holocaust. While he did mention the discrimination happening towards Jews in the 1930s, I think he should have emphasized that it literally ended in a genocide. It seems like he assumes his readers would know that already, and while I would hope everyone reading this would know that, in a book whose main argument is that sex testing is bad because of its origin with the Nazis, their atrocities should be clearly outlined. And to be honest, I think he also overemphasized the Nazi's homophobia in comparison to their antisemitism, as if they were two separate things. When in reality, they were linked—the Nazis considered homosexuality to be a "Jewish perversion." They didn't just happen to hate both queer people and Jewish people—they hated queer people specifically because they blamed Jews for their existence.
Most of this review is devoted to my criticisms, but I still overall enjoyed this and am really glad it exists. The author had a great idea, but this book would have been a lot stronger if it was more tightly edited and sourced.
August 1, 2024
this book was fastastic! i’m never gonna be able to describe it better than the blurb so you should just read that- but it’s basically about several queer/trans/intersex athletes who competed, or tried to compete in and were barred from, women’s track and field in the early-mid 20th century, AND olympic/elite sports competition governance history (with a special focus on the 1936 berlin olympics), and how the olympics came to be what they are, AND a history over the panic and concern over making sure that women athletes are “real women”, AND the way fascism and nazis had hand in it all. i learned a lot and it made me incredibly sad, because i fucking hate nazis and also because so many of the arguments and points that came up in this book (which covered about 1910-1970s/ish) are once again being raised today against queer, trans, and intersex athletes. the information was easy to follow in audiobook form, the chapters were structured really well (i just HAD to keep reading), and it was all so well researched, with acknowledgment to the fact that some things about the people and events discussed are impossible to know today. shoutout to the jockular podcast for READING MY EMAIL ON THE AIR (i wrote in to ask about books!) and recommending this among others. i obvs had to read it immediately.
June 19, 2024
This book was utterly compelling! Such concise, factual, and fascinating work. The author is a journalist and his writing is reflective of that, in it that he keeps you engaged by moving forward through the facts well and leaves open ended questions to help the reader understand.
I was struck throughout the book by the eerily similar beginnings of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power and the current far-right leadership style. It definitely made me think a bit.
But I was also surprised by the public’s openness at acceptance of Zoubek and Weston. I think the current public perception could take some notes.
Ultimately this is very important book to read to gain some perspective on modern sports and men vs women debate. Highly recommend!
I was struck throughout the book by the eerily similar beginnings of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power and the current far-right leadership style. It definitely made me think a bit.
But I was also surprised by the public’s openness at acceptance of Zoubek and Weston. I think the current public perception could take some notes.
Ultimately this is very important book to read to gain some perspective on modern sports and men vs women debate. Highly recommend!
August 28, 2024
Essential reading for anyone who wants to offer an opinion about who gets to play sports, and with whom (hint, let them play).
January 16, 2024
It’s hard to think of a coherent review for this because it covers so much. I have to say this book is timely. It stressed me out because I couldn’t stop seeing the parallels between the 30s and the rise of fascism and our own time, not to sound like a middle aged democrat, but it was so clear that I was stressed.
But I learned so much reading this! I love to see proof that queer people were always here and to see that I think four or five athletes from around Europe transitioned publicly in the 30s and 40s was so so wild because I just didn’t thrink of that happening. And at the beginning at least people were way more welcoming about it than I ever expected. To see these people’s thoughts about their gender and sexuality so explicitly makes me feel more… grounded in myself as a person who exists in history, if that makes sense. knowing that it wasn’t just a faceless blob of people from the past but real individuals like me makes me feel more connected to the past and future I think.
I’m just so impressed that the author was able to weave together all of these stories for something that feels so timely and impactful. I couldn’t stop reading, even though I was sad about the treatment of gender nonconforming athletes as sex testing was instituted. It truly hurt my heart. And it’s so so wild to see how our current sex testing in sports basically descends from Nazis and fascism. Like, of course it does, but it’s crazy to see in black and white.
But I learned so much reading this! I love to see proof that queer people were always here and to see that I think four or five athletes from around Europe transitioned publicly in the 30s and 40s was so so wild because I just didn’t thrink of that happening. And at the beginning at least people were way more welcoming about it than I ever expected. To see these people’s thoughts about their gender and sexuality so explicitly makes me feel more… grounded in myself as a person who exists in history, if that makes sense. knowing that it wasn’t just a faceless blob of people from the past but real individuals like me makes me feel more connected to the past and future I think.
I’m just so impressed that the author was able to weave together all of these stories for something that feels so timely and impactful. I couldn’t stop reading, even though I was sad about the treatment of gender nonconforming athletes as sex testing was instituted. It truly hurt my heart. And it’s so so wild to see how our current sex testing in sports basically descends from Nazis and fascism. Like, of course it does, but it’s crazy to see in black and white.
July 19, 2024
In The Other Olympians, journalist Michael Waters takes us through a fascinating deep dive into the early history women's professional athletics in the 1930s, focusing on a group of prominent athletes competing in women's events whose sex and gender identities were called into question in line with the attitudes, prejudices, and extent of medical knowledge at the time. Waters profiles the Czech athlete Zdeněk Koubek (see the nice feature on the author's website) most closely. Koubek, who is pictured on the book's cover, was a prominent runner and long jumper who competed in the 1934 Women's World Games organized by the pioneering Alice Milliat, at a time when women were not permitted to compete in the Olympics. Koubek was assigned female at birth, but his height, facial features, muscular frame, and athletic performance drew much speculation about his sex; he then transitioned to male in the mid-1930s, undergoing the version of gender affirmation surgery available at the time. Waters also profiles the British Mark Weston, another prominent athlete who competed in the Women's World Games before his gender transition, and the American 1936 Olympic gold medalist Helen Stephens, who faced widespread speculation based on her build and low-pitched voice that she was not really female (though Stephens did identify as female and was troubled by the persistent accusations).
Waters spends the last third of the book expounding on the 1936 Summer Olympics in Hitler's Berlin, at which women were allowed to compete yet their sex identity was highly scrutinized, with many asked to undergo invasive physical examinations by their countries' medical teams to certify that they were biologically female enough before being cleared to compete. He talks a bit about the controversial modern history of sex determination in sports, including testing athletes competing in women's events for genetic (karyotype) and hormonal (testosterone levels) markers of maleness.
My one critique of this book -- that Waters partially addresses at the end -- is that this topic largely isn't presented with a distinction between what we now call sex (biological sex/sex assigned at birth based on examination of an infant's external appearance) and gender identity (socially constructed, self-identified, and potentially fluid over one's lifetime). In terms of biological sex, intersex conditions aren't uncommon, and can have both genetic causes (i.e., congenital adrenal hyperplasia, partial or complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, sex chromosome mosaicism) and acquired causes (i.e., hormone-secreting adrenal tumors). It's unclear (and likely impossible to know) whether the athletes most prominently featured in this book were medically intersex or not, and/or if they would identify as transgender, genderqueer, non-binary or none of the above by today's concepts. Overall, Waters does a good job of not transposing today's moralities and definitions into these historical figures of the not-so-recent past.
Further reading:
T: The Story of Testosterone, the Hormone that Dominates and Divides Us by Carole Hooven
My statistics:
Book 156 for 2024
Book 1759 cumulatively
Waters spends the last third of the book expounding on the 1936 Summer Olympics in Hitler's Berlin, at which women were allowed to compete yet their sex identity was highly scrutinized, with many asked to undergo invasive physical examinations by their countries' medical teams to certify that they were biologically female enough before being cleared to compete. He talks a bit about the controversial modern history of sex determination in sports, including testing athletes competing in women's events for genetic (karyotype) and hormonal (testosterone levels) markers of maleness.
My one critique of this book -- that Waters partially addresses at the end -- is that this topic largely isn't presented with a distinction between what we now call sex (biological sex/sex assigned at birth based on examination of an infant's external appearance) and gender identity (socially constructed, self-identified, and potentially fluid over one's lifetime). In terms of biological sex, intersex conditions aren't uncommon, and can have both genetic causes (i.e., congenital adrenal hyperplasia, partial or complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, sex chromosome mosaicism) and acquired causes (i.e., hormone-secreting adrenal tumors). It's unclear (and likely impossible to know) whether the athletes most prominently featured in this book were medically intersex or not, and/or if they would identify as transgender, genderqueer, non-binary or none of the above by today's concepts. Overall, Waters does a good job of not transposing today's moralities and definitions into these historical figures of the not-so-recent past.
Further reading:
T: The Story of Testosterone, the Hormone that Dominates and Divides Us by Carole Hooven
My statistics:
Book 156 for 2024
Book 1759 cumulatively
August 5, 2024
4.5
Fascinating and (unfortunately) quite timely considering some of the headlines we've seen during these Olympics. In The Other Olympians, Michael Waters creates a history of sports and trans identities and world politics in the 1930s.
I think the wildest part to me was just how much acceptance and support people like Mark Weston and Zdeněk Koubek received publicly. In fact Waters points out that a lot of the novelty of their transitions wasn't that they did it but that they did it publicly. Waters charts how 1930s science was tackling the issues of sex and gender and how even then it was commonly understood that it isn't binary even if they hadn't quite reached the 21st century differentiation between sex and gender. He also highlights that the most ardent supporters of "sex testing" came from the Nazi Party and their sympathizers and ideas of white supremacy and eugenics and that even their ideas of what "sex tests" might look like were half-baked at best.
I do think the structure could have been a little smoother, especially at the beginning of the book which is why I struggle to give this a full 5-stars. But on the whole, I think this was a well-researched and fascinating read and highly recommend for anyone with interest in queer history, sports history, or an interest in seeing how some of the current "culture wars" came to exist.
Fascinating and (unfortunately) quite timely considering some of the headlines we've seen during these Olympics. In The Other Olympians, Michael Waters creates a history of sports and trans identities and world politics in the 1930s.
I think the wildest part to me was just how much acceptance and support people like Mark Weston and Zdeněk Koubek received publicly. In fact Waters points out that a lot of the novelty of their transitions wasn't that they did it but that they did it publicly. Waters charts how 1930s science was tackling the issues of sex and gender and how even then it was commonly understood that it isn't binary even if they hadn't quite reached the 21st century differentiation between sex and gender. He also highlights that the most ardent supporters of "sex testing" came from the Nazi Party and their sympathizers and ideas of white supremacy and eugenics and that even their ideas of what "sex tests" might look like were half-baked at best.
I do think the structure could have been a little smoother, especially at the beginning of the book which is why I struggle to give this a full 5-stars. But on the whole, I think this was a well-researched and fascinating read and highly recommend for anyone with interest in queer history, sports history, or an interest in seeing how some of the current "culture wars" came to exist.
August 10, 2024
i picked this up right when the olympics started because im nothing if not a mood reader and i wanted to fully celebrate the olympic season. little did i know that a full-blown gender scandal would break out when i was in the throes of reading this. imane khlief was slandered by the world for being “too masculine” and accused of being a man, of being trans, and “beating up women”. what was then uncovered was exactly what this book prophesized, which was dubious testing measures changing the goal post on what it means to be a woman. this book shed so much light on how we ended up in this situation and the history of gender surveillance, fascism, and the origins of the modern olympic games. i highly highly recommend this book, it will not disappoint! it gave a glaring and well written insight into european history, the olympic games, and queer history.
July 30, 2024
olympic szn!
this book was GOOD — uncovered & surprising history about the history of sex testing in sports that has fully been forgotten today. narrative is super engaging, despite lots of this book focusing on the internal politics of international governing bodies of sport. super accessible read. pairs excellently with NPR’s new “Tested” podcast. really interesting to hear the parallels between “protect women’s sports” public fever in the 1930s and today — it’s never about women’s sports, but moral panic on gender!
4.5 stars !
this book was GOOD — uncovered & surprising history about the history of sex testing in sports that has fully been forgotten today. narrative is super engaging, despite lots of this book focusing on the internal politics of international governing bodies of sport. super accessible read. pairs excellently with NPR’s new “Tested” podcast. really interesting to hear the parallels between “protect women’s sports” public fever in the 1930s and today — it’s never about women’s sports, but moral panic on gender!
4.5 stars !
August 27, 2024
4.5 stars in rounding up. Many factors made this book especially relevant for me - the fact that the summer Olympics just happened, we just visited Germany and Garmisch-Partenkirchen specifically (where these Olympics took place), I recently read the Boys In the Boat which was another take on this Olympics, and of course the current political narrative around who is (and isn’t) a man or woman in the context of sports. Waters integrates the stories of several athletes living as men and accepted as such (since “Trans man” wasn’t a word used at the time) while also discussing the complexities of gender “testing” - what makes a woman a woman? If a certain level of testosterone makes someone not a woman who can compete, what about for a man - can they still compete? What about intersex folks? And the backdrop of the rise of Hitler and their own erasure of Queer experiences was both incredibly sad and also enlightening as to history on this issue. A recommended read!
July 11, 2024
A really interesting exploration/historical account of queer Olympian athletes and the way the IOC evolved to fully embrace sex testing as a way to exclude intersex and trans athletes. Starting from the 1930s, the book highlights some of the most prominent trans athletes of the day and the reception they received from both the press and world at large. Great on audio and highly recommended if you want to better understand gender and sports in history over time!
August 2, 2024
I learned so much and what a time to read this book! This was so informative yet digestible. 5 ⭐️
August 20, 2024
my friend wrote this but my unbiased opinion is still that it is absolutely incredible
June 24, 2024
ARC provided by Netgalley, this was a hopeful and enlightening read! Perfect for pride month, and it was wonderful to gain some insight into a moment in trans history that I really didn't know that much about! While I do wish the structure had been a little tighter at times, with the transitions between more objective, birds eye delivery of information and zooming into the more character based scene structure sometimes coming off as less than smooth, it's defintely a minor criticism compared to such a treat of a book. Overall totally worth the read if you're interested in queer history, and I've already recommended it to a couple of friends!
August 27, 2024
In America today, we are living in “an era of intense governmental backlash to queer and particularly trans people.” This seems especially true with recent attacks on trans athletes. In his new book, The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports, author Michael Waters explains how this type of backlash is nothing new, and, in fact, is rooted in the history of athletics.
Waters’ book “chronicles the lives of several European athletes” who publicly transitioned from female to male in the 1930s. As Waters tells their stories, he also provides a history of the Olympic Games from their beginning in 1896 through the Berlin Games in 1936. This history includes the many struggles faced by women in athletics. A key theme in the book is how the men who ran athletic competitions like the Olympics worked to restrict participation by women. Back then, so-called athletic experts (always men) claimed that it was dangerous for women to participate in athletics, risking serious damage to their bodies. For this reason, women were generally excluded from competition or limited to a small number of events. To challenge this, a French woman, Alice Milliat, formed the International Amateur Athletic Federation, or IAAF, to organize athletic events for women. Waters explains how the men who governed the Olympics persistently worked to kill the IAAF and how Milliat fought back and continued to promote athletic opportunities for women in the face of constant sexism.
A protagonist in Waters’ story is Zdeněk Koubek, a track athlete from Czechoslovakia. Koubek was recorded as female on his birth certificate but “grew up knowing he was different.” Koubek was a superb athlete and began winning athletic competitions. As his success grew, so did comments regarding his appearance, which some regarded as manly. Waters’ story also includes other successful athletes during these times who suffered from “the growing fervor over butch women athletes.” Waters’ research provides insight into the struggles of these athletes, including the English athlete Mark Waters, and examines the impact of their struggles on their personal lives, as well as on their efforts to gain acceptance within the communities in which they lived. When Koubek and Waters both publicly transitioned to men in the 1930s, it caused quite a commotion, both in general and within the world of sports. Though both had retired from athletics, many in the world of sports continued to refer to them as “cheaters.” Koubek, in particular, became a “media sensation.”
Waters’ history of the Olympic Games includes efforts to allow Nazi Germany to host the 1936 Olympics and how Hitler orchestrated these Games as propaganda to promote so-called Aryan superiority. Even though it was abundantly clear that the Nazis were already brutalizing all they deemed unworthy, especially Jews, the men who were the leaders of the Olympics pushed doggedly, over the protests of many, to stage the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Helping to lead this effort was the American sports authority, Avery Brundage. Waters provides a detailed history of Brundage, “who always seemed to have a scheme up his sleeve” in his efforts to promote Germany, as well as to deter women in sports. Brundage’s blatant support for fascism never seemed to hurt his standing as a leader in American athletics, even after the horrors of World War II.
Waters explores the thinking on the topics of sex and sexuality during these times and includes the story of Magnus Hirschfeld, who founded the Institute for Sexual Science in 1919 in Berlin, Germany. Hirschfeld conducted “early research into people who are today called trans, intersex, and queer, shaping the world’s understanding of sex.” Waters writes how Hirschfeld’s “central thesis on sexual identity – that homosexuality was not an illness but rather a character trait – seeped into international discourse,” and how, for a time, the LGBTQ+ community within Berlin flourished. This ended quickly and violently with the rise of the Nazi Party in the 1930s. “Soon after Hitler took power, Nazi leaders launched a campaign to crush Germany’s queer community.” The attacks were brutal. “People on the margins of gender and sexuality were arrested, imprisoned, and, at times, dispatched to their deaths.”
Waters’ research on the Olympics explains how the Games evolved and led to “the birth of a regime of gender surveillance in sports.” The Olympics and other bodies that ran athletic competitions crafted “rules around which athletes were eligible to compete,” which often included sex testing. Waters provides many strong arguments against sex testing. “When the International Olympic Committee decides whether someone should be allowed to participate in men’s or women’s sports, they are not reflecting some objective reality. Instead, they are making arbitrary decisions about what ‘male’ and ‘female’ mean to them at each historical juncture.” Waters writes how these rules have never been rooted in science. Waters’ book “operates from the premise that sex is not a stable category.” Waters explains that “today, many people understand that sex and gender are two separate categories: gender is a psychological and socialized identity, while sex is assigned, often at birth, based on your physical body.”
Waters follows the evolution of sex testing in sports up to current times. Sex testing began as invasive inspections of the athletes naked bodies, then included inconclusive chromosome testing. “Today, sex testing most often takes the form of measuring testosterone, even though the evidence that testosterone confers any kind of athletic advantage is slim.” Waters writes that “the more we probe, the more we can see that sex testing does not exist to ensure ‘fairness’ in sports, as many supporters claim, but rather to lend credibility to the rigid separation between men’s and women’s sports. Sex testing allows athletic organizations to sort people into neat categories of male and female, and, more importantly, to push out the athletes – most often trans and intersex people – who complicate the binary assumptions of sex.” This effort continues. In 2023, World Athletics, the international governing body that sanctions competitions for sports such as track and field, instituted a “ban on nearly all trans women athletes.”
I found Waters’ book rich in detail and a remarkable work of history. The book shows that today’s appalling White Christian nationalist attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, and on trans people in particular, is not a new phenomenon, and sadly won’t be ending anytime soon. And so, it goes…
Waters’ book “chronicles the lives of several European athletes” who publicly transitioned from female to male in the 1930s. As Waters tells their stories, he also provides a history of the Olympic Games from their beginning in 1896 through the Berlin Games in 1936. This history includes the many struggles faced by women in athletics. A key theme in the book is how the men who ran athletic competitions like the Olympics worked to restrict participation by women. Back then, so-called athletic experts (always men) claimed that it was dangerous for women to participate in athletics, risking serious damage to their bodies. For this reason, women were generally excluded from competition or limited to a small number of events. To challenge this, a French woman, Alice Milliat, formed the International Amateur Athletic Federation, or IAAF, to organize athletic events for women. Waters explains how the men who governed the Olympics persistently worked to kill the IAAF and how Milliat fought back and continued to promote athletic opportunities for women in the face of constant sexism.
A protagonist in Waters’ story is Zdeněk Koubek, a track athlete from Czechoslovakia. Koubek was recorded as female on his birth certificate but “grew up knowing he was different.” Koubek was a superb athlete and began winning athletic competitions. As his success grew, so did comments regarding his appearance, which some regarded as manly. Waters’ story also includes other successful athletes during these times who suffered from “the growing fervor over butch women athletes.” Waters’ research provides insight into the struggles of these athletes, including the English athlete Mark Waters, and examines the impact of their struggles on their personal lives, as well as on their efforts to gain acceptance within the communities in which they lived. When Koubek and Waters both publicly transitioned to men in the 1930s, it caused quite a commotion, both in general and within the world of sports. Though both had retired from athletics, many in the world of sports continued to refer to them as “cheaters.” Koubek, in particular, became a “media sensation.”
Waters’ history of the Olympic Games includes efforts to allow Nazi Germany to host the 1936 Olympics and how Hitler orchestrated these Games as propaganda to promote so-called Aryan superiority. Even though it was abundantly clear that the Nazis were already brutalizing all they deemed unworthy, especially Jews, the men who were the leaders of the Olympics pushed doggedly, over the protests of many, to stage the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Helping to lead this effort was the American sports authority, Avery Brundage. Waters provides a detailed history of Brundage, “who always seemed to have a scheme up his sleeve” in his efforts to promote Germany, as well as to deter women in sports. Brundage’s blatant support for fascism never seemed to hurt his standing as a leader in American athletics, even after the horrors of World War II.
Waters explores the thinking on the topics of sex and sexuality during these times and includes the story of Magnus Hirschfeld, who founded the Institute for Sexual Science in 1919 in Berlin, Germany. Hirschfeld conducted “early research into people who are today called trans, intersex, and queer, shaping the world’s understanding of sex.” Waters writes how Hirschfeld’s “central thesis on sexual identity – that homosexuality was not an illness but rather a character trait – seeped into international discourse,” and how, for a time, the LGBTQ+ community within Berlin flourished. This ended quickly and violently with the rise of the Nazi Party in the 1930s. “Soon after Hitler took power, Nazi leaders launched a campaign to crush Germany’s queer community.” The attacks were brutal. “People on the margins of gender and sexuality were arrested, imprisoned, and, at times, dispatched to their deaths.”
Waters’ research on the Olympics explains how the Games evolved and led to “the birth of a regime of gender surveillance in sports.” The Olympics and other bodies that ran athletic competitions crafted “rules around which athletes were eligible to compete,” which often included sex testing. Waters provides many strong arguments against sex testing. “When the International Olympic Committee decides whether someone should be allowed to participate in men’s or women’s sports, they are not reflecting some objective reality. Instead, they are making arbitrary decisions about what ‘male’ and ‘female’ mean to them at each historical juncture.” Waters writes how these rules have never been rooted in science. Waters’ book “operates from the premise that sex is not a stable category.” Waters explains that “today, many people understand that sex and gender are two separate categories: gender is a psychological and socialized identity, while sex is assigned, often at birth, based on your physical body.”
Waters follows the evolution of sex testing in sports up to current times. Sex testing began as invasive inspections of the athletes naked bodies, then included inconclusive chromosome testing. “Today, sex testing most often takes the form of measuring testosterone, even though the evidence that testosterone confers any kind of athletic advantage is slim.” Waters writes that “the more we probe, the more we can see that sex testing does not exist to ensure ‘fairness’ in sports, as many supporters claim, but rather to lend credibility to the rigid separation between men’s and women’s sports. Sex testing allows athletic organizations to sort people into neat categories of male and female, and, more importantly, to push out the athletes – most often trans and intersex people – who complicate the binary assumptions of sex.” This effort continues. In 2023, World Athletics, the international governing body that sanctions competitions for sports such as track and field, instituted a “ban on nearly all trans women athletes.”
I found Waters’ book rich in detail and a remarkable work of history. The book shows that today’s appalling White Christian nationalist attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, and on trans people in particular, is not a new phenomenon, and sadly won’t be ending anytime soon. And so, it goes…
May 22, 2024
THE OTHER OLYMPIANS is an investigative look at the history of gender-nonconforming athletes, the accompanying legislations and regulations, and the deeply fascist roots of sex testing and discrimination. The author's note featured at the end sums this piece up nicely. While it's disheartening to see the mirroring outrage now as nearly a hundred years ago, the book is also filled with hope in the individual athletes we meet, and the lives they were able to live for themselves outside of sports. Public history likes to hide the lives of people who don't fit their (unspecified) standards, so I was personally touched to read the accounts of trans men that I could see myself in who died years before I was born.
I strongly encourage anyone who wishes to voice an opinion on the 'debate' of trans athletes to read this novel—as well as Fair Play .
Thank you to Macmillan and NetGalley for providing a review copy.
I strongly encourage anyone who wishes to voice an opinion on the 'debate' of trans athletes to read this novel—as well as Fair Play .
Thank you to Macmillan and NetGalley for providing a review copy.
June 23, 2024
Journalist and freelance writer Michael Waters has written a fascinating history of transitioning athletes of the early twentieth century and how the Olympics organization of the time reacted to them. The book covers events that were new to me, and it shines a light on the background to an issue that today manages to provide fodder for political controversy.
Waters follows most closely the life of Zdeněk Koubek, a Czech track athlete. Koubek won five national titles and two medals at the 1934 Women’s World Games and was considered one of the best athletes in Czechoslovakia. Koubek was always shy around other athletes, and never changed or showered in communal locker rooms. This, along with some of Koubek’s physical characteristics (the athlete was said to have a need to regularly shave off facial hair) prompted rumors about whether Koubek was a woman or a man.
In 1935 Koubek withdrew from sports and after a period of time announced that he would live the rest of his life as a man. He consulted with physicians, underwent examinations, and was determined to have predominantly male sexual characteristics. He underwent some type of surgery (what exactly is not known today) and by 1936 was pronounced by his doctors to have “become” a man.
The press and public reaction to Koubek and his transition was curious but generally positive. Around the same time that he transitioned, another athlete who had previously competed in the Women’s World Games came out and transitioned as a man. The British athlete known as Mary Louise Edith Weston became Mark Weston. Again, public and press expressed curiosity but were generally positive.
Waters emphasizes that it is difficult to put the labels we use today on these athletes. Whether they were intersex (being born with biological traits that do not fit traditional classifications of male or female) or trans (a person whose gender identity doesn’t match that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth) isn’t really known, as those terms were not used in the 1930s. How reporters and the general public processed what was happening to these athletes would not take such distinctions into account.
Waters makes the case that leading theories of sex and gender at the time even contemplated the possibility that people could spontaneously experience a change in gender as a natural occurrence beyond their control. That’s quite a different understanding of sex and gender than we have today.
The other important person Waters follows in his book is Alice Milliat, the pioneering French female sports organizer who founded the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale (International Women’s Sports Federation) and the Women’s World Games. She took these actions after the Olympics organizers refused to include women’s track and field events in the 1924 Olympics.
Milliat’s struggles with the Olympic organizers continued for several years after the 1924 games, up to and through the Berlin Olympics held in 1936. In general, as Waters’ research tells us, a powerful clique within the Olympic organizers (including the American Avery Brundage) did not want women competing in the Olympics track events, nor did they appreciate the competition that Milliat’s Federation and her Games represented. They worked hard to push Milliat to turn over her organization to them. She eventually gave in and did so after the 1936 games. As you might expect, women’s participation in the Olympics did not substantially increase until the 1970s.
Among the things that Brundage and his fellows did to push Milliat was to question how she could have allowed athletes to compete in her games when they did not display what they felt were “normal” female characteristics (referring to Koubek and Weston). Brundage proposed to the head of the Olympics that it begin instituting a policy of medical examination of women athletes before competing in the Olympics.
The policy became effective for women track and field athletes at the 1936 Olympics. Waters goes into detail about how many of the proponents of the testing instituted at the 1936 Games were the Nazi hosts, as it fit into their own notions of purity and “normative gender standards”. This included the Nazi sports doctor Wilhelm Knoll, who was one of the first to advocate for testing.
This notion that women athletes need to prove that they fit into what have never been well-defined criteria of femaleness persists to this day. Waters devotes several pages in this book to just how unworkable and unscientific such a pursuit actually is. The panic that some man will attempt to compete as a woman and ruin things for all the “real” women (or worse), is in the air these days, and is being exploited for political gain.
Interestingly, when Alice Milliat was questioned about whether Koubek’s medals should be revoked after he transitioned, she gave what I think was an insightful reply. “If it is proved that [Koubek] has become a man,” she said, “it is logical to consider that previously she was a woman.”
Waters follows most closely the life of Zdeněk Koubek, a Czech track athlete. Koubek won five national titles and two medals at the 1934 Women’s World Games and was considered one of the best athletes in Czechoslovakia. Koubek was always shy around other athletes, and never changed or showered in communal locker rooms. This, along with some of Koubek’s physical characteristics (the athlete was said to have a need to regularly shave off facial hair) prompted rumors about whether Koubek was a woman or a man.
In 1935 Koubek withdrew from sports and after a period of time announced that he would live the rest of his life as a man. He consulted with physicians, underwent examinations, and was determined to have predominantly male sexual characteristics. He underwent some type of surgery (what exactly is not known today) and by 1936 was pronounced by his doctors to have “become” a man.
The press and public reaction to Koubek and his transition was curious but generally positive. Around the same time that he transitioned, another athlete who had previously competed in the Women’s World Games came out and transitioned as a man. The British athlete known as Mary Louise Edith Weston became Mark Weston. Again, public and press expressed curiosity but were generally positive.
Waters emphasizes that it is difficult to put the labels we use today on these athletes. Whether they were intersex (being born with biological traits that do not fit traditional classifications of male or female) or trans (a person whose gender identity doesn’t match that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth) isn’t really known, as those terms were not used in the 1930s. How reporters and the general public processed what was happening to these athletes would not take such distinctions into account.
Waters makes the case that leading theories of sex and gender at the time even contemplated the possibility that people could spontaneously experience a change in gender as a natural occurrence beyond their control. That’s quite a different understanding of sex and gender than we have today.
The other important person Waters follows in his book is Alice Milliat, the pioneering French female sports organizer who founded the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale (International Women’s Sports Federation) and the Women’s World Games. She took these actions after the Olympics organizers refused to include women’s track and field events in the 1924 Olympics.
Milliat’s struggles with the Olympic organizers continued for several years after the 1924 games, up to and through the Berlin Olympics held in 1936. In general, as Waters’ research tells us, a powerful clique within the Olympic organizers (including the American Avery Brundage) did not want women competing in the Olympics track events, nor did they appreciate the competition that Milliat’s Federation and her Games represented. They worked hard to push Milliat to turn over her organization to them. She eventually gave in and did so after the 1936 games. As you might expect, women’s participation in the Olympics did not substantially increase until the 1970s.
Among the things that Brundage and his fellows did to push Milliat was to question how she could have allowed athletes to compete in her games when they did not display what they felt were “normal” female characteristics (referring to Koubek and Weston). Brundage proposed to the head of the Olympics that it begin instituting a policy of medical examination of women athletes before competing in the Olympics.
The policy became effective for women track and field athletes at the 1936 Olympics. Waters goes into detail about how many of the proponents of the testing instituted at the 1936 Games were the Nazi hosts, as it fit into their own notions of purity and “normative gender standards”. This included the Nazi sports doctor Wilhelm Knoll, who was one of the first to advocate for testing.
This notion that women athletes need to prove that they fit into what have never been well-defined criteria of femaleness persists to this day. Waters devotes several pages in this book to just how unworkable and unscientific such a pursuit actually is. The panic that some man will attempt to compete as a woman and ruin things for all the “real” women (or worse), is in the air these days, and is being exploited for political gain.
Interestingly, when Alice Milliat was questioned about whether Koubek’s medals should be revoked after he transitioned, she gave what I think was an insightful reply. “If it is proved that [Koubek] has become a man,” she said, “it is logical to consider that previously she was a woman.”
May 12, 2024
Kako izbrati pravo spletno športno stavnico
Izbira prave spletne športne stavnice je ključnega pomena za prijetno in uspešno izkušnjo športnih stav. Ker je na voljo toliko možnosti, je pomembno, da pred odločitvijo upoštevate več dejavnikov. Obiščite naš vodnik, ki vam bo pomagal izbrati najboljše spletno mesto za sportske stave za leto 2024! Tukaj je obsežen vodnik o tem, kako izbrati najboljšo spletno športno stavnico za svoje potrebe:
1. Ugled in zanesljivost
Začnite z raziskovanjem ugleda in zanesljivosti športne stavnice. Poiščite uveljavljene ponudnike s poštenimi izplačili, preglednimi praksami in pozitivnimi ocenami strank. Izogibajte se offshore ali nelicenciranim športnim stavam, ki lahko ogrozijo vaša sredstva in osebne podatke.
2. Licenciranje in ureditev
Prepričajte se, da imajo športne stave licenco in jih ureja ugleden organ za igre na srečo. To zagotavlja dodatno raven varnosti in zagotavlja, da se operater drži strogih standardov poštenosti in odgovornosti.
3. Vsi trgi športa in stav
Razmislite o različnih trgih športa in stav, ki jih ponujajo športne stavnice. Izberite platformo, ki pokriva široko paleto športov in ponuja različne stavne možnosti, kot so stave na denarno linijo, razpon točk, agregat, parlay in prop stave. To vam omogoča, da raziščete različne stavne strategije in prilagodite svojim željam.
4. Koeficienti konkurenčnosti
Primerjajte kvote, ki jih ponujajo različne športne stavnice, da povečate svoje potencialne donose. Poiščite športne stavnice, ki dosledno ponujajo konkurenčne kvote in ugodna izplačila v primerjavi s svojimi konkurenti.
5. Uporabniški vmesnik in izkušnja
Izberite športno stavnico s priročnim vmesnikom in intuitivnim dizajnom. Dobro zasnovana platforma izboljša celotno stavno izkušnjo in olajša krmarjenje med različnimi športi, trgi in možnostmi stav.
6. Bančne možnosti in varnost
Preverite razpoložljive bančne možnosti za pologe in dvige. Zanesljiva športna stavnica mora ponujati varne načine plačila, kot so kreditne/debetne kartice, e-denarnice (kot sta PayPal in Skrill), bančna nakazila in kriptovalute. Prepričajte se, da športna stavnica uporablja napredno tehnologijo šifriranja za zaščito vaših finančnih transakcij in osebnih podatkov.
7. Bonusi in promocije
Razmislite o bonusih in promocijah, ki jih ponuja športna borza, da izboljšate svoje možnosti stav. Poiščite bonuse dobrodošlice za nove stranke, stalne promocije in programe zvestobe, ki nagrajujejo redne igralce. Vendar preberite pogoje in določila bonusa, da boste razumeli zahteve in omejitve stav.
8. Storitve za stranke
Ocenite kakovost storitev za stranke, ki jih ponuja športna stavnica. Izberite platforme, ki ponujajo odzivno podporo strankam prek več kanalov, kot so klepet v živo, e-pošta ali telefon. Hitra in ustrežljiva služba za stranke je bistvena za učinkovito reševanje težav ali vprašanj.
9. Mobilna združljivost
V današnji digitalni dobi je mobilna združljivost bistvena za priročne športne stave. Izberite športno stavnico, ki ponuja odzivno mobilno aplikacijo ali mobilnim napravam prijazno spletno mesto. To vam omogoča, da stavite na poti s svojim pametnim telefonom ali tablico.
10. Odgovorno stavljanje
Na koncu dajte prednost športnim stavam, ki spodbujajo odgovorno igranje iger na srečo. Poiščite funkcije, kot so omejitve depozitov, možnosti samoizključitve in dostop do podpornih virov za igre na srečo. Stave naj bodo prijetne in v okviru vaših zmožnosti.
Če povzamemo, izbira prave spletne športne stavnice zahteva natančno preučitev različnih dejavnikov, od ugleda in licenciranja do možnosti stav in storitev za stranke. S temeljito raziskavo in razvrščanjem ključnih meril lahko najdete ugledno in zanesljivo športno stavnico, ki ustreza vašim potrebam in izboljša vašo izkušnjo športnih stav. Ne pozabite staviti odgovorno in uživajte v svojih najljubših športih!
Izbira prave spletne športne stavnice je ključnega pomena za prijetno in uspešno izkušnjo športnih stav. Ker je na voljo toliko možnosti, je pomembno, da pred odločitvijo upoštevate več dejavnikov. Obiščite naš vodnik, ki vam bo pomagal izbrati najboljše spletno mesto za sportske stave za leto 2024! Tukaj je obsežen vodnik o tem, kako izbrati najboljšo spletno športno stavnico za svoje potrebe:
1. Ugled in zanesljivost
Začnite z raziskovanjem ugleda in zanesljivosti športne stavnice. Poiščite uveljavljene ponudnike s poštenimi izplačili, preglednimi praksami in pozitivnimi ocenami strank. Izogibajte se offshore ali nelicenciranim športnim stavam, ki lahko ogrozijo vaša sredstva in osebne podatke.
2. Licenciranje in ureditev
Prepričajte se, da imajo športne stave licenco in jih ureja ugleden organ za igre na srečo. To zagotavlja dodatno raven varnosti in zagotavlja, da se operater drži strogih standardov poštenosti in odgovornosti.
3. Vsi trgi športa in stav
Razmislite o različnih trgih športa in stav, ki jih ponujajo športne stavnice. Izberite platformo, ki pokriva široko paleto športov in ponuja različne stavne možnosti, kot so stave na denarno linijo, razpon točk, agregat, parlay in prop stave. To vam omogoča, da raziščete različne stavne strategije in prilagodite svojim željam.
4. Koeficienti konkurenčnosti
Primerjajte kvote, ki jih ponujajo različne športne stavnice, da povečate svoje potencialne donose. Poiščite športne stavnice, ki dosledno ponujajo konkurenčne kvote in ugodna izplačila v primerjavi s svojimi konkurenti.
5. Uporabniški vmesnik in izkušnja
Izberite športno stavnico s priročnim vmesnikom in intuitivnim dizajnom. Dobro zasnovana platforma izboljša celotno stavno izkušnjo in olajša krmarjenje med različnimi športi, trgi in možnostmi stav.
6. Bančne možnosti in varnost
Preverite razpoložljive bančne možnosti za pologe in dvige. Zanesljiva športna stavnica mora ponujati varne načine plačila, kot so kreditne/debetne kartice, e-denarnice (kot sta PayPal in Skrill), bančna nakazila in kriptovalute. Prepričajte se, da športna stavnica uporablja napredno tehnologijo šifriranja za zaščito vaših finančnih transakcij in osebnih podatkov.
7. Bonusi in promocije
Razmislite o bonusih in promocijah, ki jih ponuja športna borza, da izboljšate svoje možnosti stav. Poiščite bonuse dobrodošlice za nove stranke, stalne promocije in programe zvestobe, ki nagrajujejo redne igralce. Vendar preberite pogoje in določila bonusa, da boste razumeli zahteve in omejitve stav.
8. Storitve za stranke
Ocenite kakovost storitev za stranke, ki jih ponuja športna stavnica. Izberite platforme, ki ponujajo odzivno podporo strankam prek več kanalov, kot so klepet v živo, e-pošta ali telefon. Hitra in ustrežljiva služba za stranke je bistvena za učinkovito reševanje težav ali vprašanj.
9. Mobilna združljivost
V današnji digitalni dobi je mobilna združljivost bistvena za priročne športne stave. Izberite športno stavnico, ki ponuja odzivno mobilno aplikacijo ali mobilnim napravam prijazno spletno mesto. To vam omogoča, da stavite na poti s svojim pametnim telefonom ali tablico.
10. Odgovorno stavljanje
Na koncu dajte prednost športnim stavam, ki spodbujajo odgovorno igranje iger na srečo. Poiščite funkcije, kot so omejitve depozitov, možnosti samoizključitve in dostop do podpornih virov za igre na srečo. Stave naj bodo prijetne in v okviru vaših zmožnosti.
Če povzamemo, izbira prave spletne športne stavnice zahteva natančno preučitev različnih dejavnikov, od ugleda in licenciranja do možnosti stav in storitev za stranke. S temeljito raziskavo in razvrščanjem ključnih meril lahko najdete ugledno in zanesljivo športno stavnico, ki ustreza vašim potrebam in izboljša vašo izkušnjo športnih stav. Ne pozabite staviti odgovorno in uživajte v svojih najljubših športih!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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