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Farrar, Straus and Giroux

The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports

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WINNER of the 2025 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Nonfiction. A Finalist for the 2024 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History and the 2025 Mark Lynton History Prize. Named one of the Best Books of 2024 by The New Yorker, NPR and BookPage. "Michael Waters performs an Olympian act of storytelling, using the stories of these extraordinary athletes to explore in brilliant detail the struggle for understanding and equality." ―Jonathan Eig, author of King: A Life, winner of the Pulitzer Prize 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. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Farrar, Straus and Giroux


Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 4, 2024


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Print length ‏ : ‎ 368 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0374609810


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 18


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.15 x 9.3 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #565,819 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #65 in Olympic Games #448 in LGBTQ+ Biographies (Books) #519 in Sports History (Books)


#65 in Olympic Games:


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • Fascinating!
Format: Kindle
Loved this book and learned so much. To me, it is just as much a book about anti feminism as it is about trans athletes.
Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2025 by Valerie Hoffman Klein
    • History
Format: Hardcover
I enjoy history and and how the past connects us today. This book is interesting in that regard
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2024 by Embree Walker
    • A new favorite book
Format: Hardcover
I think I yelled a little bit when I saw this cover a few months ago with its subtitle perfectly aligned with my interests. I thought I was dreaming. I took a screenshot to convince myself. Yep, the thing against queerness-and-sports is apparently fascist, I knew that, but exactly how, I could not have explained. I was so, so happy to get a free advance copy of The Other Olympians via NetGalley. This book has given me some answers. I've done research from this era, and I appreciate how much effort goes into finding sources to tell a story like this, all the more so given that it happened in multiple countries and languages. I read The Other Olympians slowly, dwelling on every sentence. Now, this story is seared into my brain and is irrevocably card-shuffled with everything else I know about the 1930s. Side question: Who is this character Avery Brundage? How is he real? All the nonsense he pulled, on multiple levels, I can barely believe. When I come down from my incredulity, I have to admit, yes, intellectually I know there are men like him. I just try to avoid them. Avery Brundage aside, this book is part of my identity now. To everyone who has ever asked, "But are trans people valid? Because sports?" (unknowingly walking into Chris Rufo's right-wing messaging trap), I would like to quietly hand them a copy of this book, The Other Olympians by Michael Waters, and I hope they read all 368 pages and have a think. The book explains the history of the moral panic over playing sports while being intersex or trans. I didn't know how far back this history went and how extensive the story was. I keep being amazed by the stories we can tell and how they make sense of our world today. I say "we," but I did not write this. I am just a huge fan. This is an achievement. Anyone who appreciates historical deep-dives should pick this up. It's enjoyable to read, and it makes its points well, while leaving enough unsaid that readers can draw their own connections. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2024 by Tucker Lieberman
    • A must read!
Format: Hardcover
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. All opinions are my own. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2024 by Lexi
    • The Other Olympians. (4/4.5 but giving 5)
Format: Paperback
Review Image by Nick Francis
Very good. Timely.
Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2025 by Nick Francis
    • Broadens and deepens my understanding and appreciation of living memory and history
Format: Hardcover
I thought this was an interesting read until I got to Chapter 12, when it became an engrossing read. In broad outlines, I was familiar with much of queer history, participated in some of it. Going into The Other Olympians, I knew maybe three of the names: Magnus Hirschfeld, Jesse Owens and Leni Riefenstahl; the rest of this story was undiscovered country for me. I'd always thought of Christine Jorgensen as the "first transexual" who transitioned the year I was born (1952). The fact that the history goes back even as far as another generation - which leads to further questions about what led to the point they were at in the 1930s, and it was Europe, so much of this news and information never made it past the gatekeepers in positions of authority in the USA - was mind-boggling to me. The Other Olympians was quite the package, entertaining, informative, interesting AND transformative. What impressed me the most was how he developed the stories of these athletes into a reflection on sex-testing itself. Very well thought out, very well developed ideas that were very well presented. If you think you know queer history, Michael Waters' research and writing are proof there's always more to learn. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2024 by J. Rugino
    • Makes sense of the senseless
Format: Hardcover
I see headlines about sex/gender testing in sports all the time, and I'm always puzzled as to why organizations like the Olympics Committee are so obsessed — and how they think they're evening defining or testing for concepts like these! This book sort of explains it all, by taking us back about a 100 years, to the origins of sex testing in the Olympics and the Nazi sports officials who were advocating it. It's so satisfying to have answers like these. As a plus, it's also really well-written and approachable, very easy to read, and a great set of stories, like the Czech runner Zdeněk Koubek. I think almost anyone would find this story worthwhile and illuminating. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2024 by Eleanor
    • Fascinating and timely read!
Format: Kindle
GREAT read. For me, this slice of history feels VERY current. “The Other Olympians” examines some of the historical events from the last century that help explain the lack of support for women in athletics, the normalization of sexual assault to insure athletes are true “women,” and the undue hysteria around transgender athletes. I enjoyed this book via audiobook and the narration was outstanding. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2024 by Paul B Duff

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