The Other Olympians 

Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports

by Michael Waters (me!)

Forthcoming June 4, 2024

Pre-order it today: 

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Macmillan website 

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In December 1935, Zdeněk Koubek, one of the most famous athletes in women's track-and-field sports, announced that he was going to be living as a man. 

The story caused an instant sensation, and Koubek became a global celebrity. For a brief moment, he seemed to be ushering in a new paradigm for sports. Readers flooded popular magazines with letters asking how a gender transition was possible; doctors wrote op-eds urging the public to accept him; queer Americans wondered how they, too, could follow a similar path. 

That might have stayed true if it were not for a small cadre of sports officials at the International Olympic Committee, who in early 1936 raised the alarm over athletes like Koubek. Unbeknownst to the public, they began devising a system of “sex testing” techniques that, they hoped, would keep trans and intersex athletes out of professional sports forever. 

To unveil their plan, they chose a controversial venue: the Berlin Olympics, set to be hosted in Nazi Germany that summer. 

Weaving together Koubek's story alongside the institutional rise of the IOC, The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports uncovers the history of one of the most important forgotten athletes of the 20th century.


illustrated by Willie Quiroz

Using Format