The Other Olympians: A True Story of Gender, Fascism and the Making of Modern Sport

Author:   Michael Waters
Publisher:   Ebury Publishing
ISBN:  

9781529910216


Pages:   368
Publication Date:   06 June 2024
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Our Price $36.99 Quantity:  
Add to Cart

Share |

The Other Olympians: A True Story of Gender, Fascism and the Making of Modern Sport


Add your own review!

Overview

The story of the early athletes and Olympic bureaucrats who lit the flame for today's culture wars. In December 1935, Zdenek 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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Michael Waters
Publisher:   Ebury Publishing
Imprint:   Ebury Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.40cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 23.30cm
Weight:   0.450kg
ISBN:  

9781529910216


ISBN 10:   1529910218
Pages:   368
Publication Date:   06 June 2024
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

Reviews

The Other Olympians is a stunning addition to queer and sports history, an inspiring and cinematic account of perseverance, identity, activism, and, ultimately, joy. Michael Waters has achieved what all great historians aim to do: changing our understanding of the present by illuminating the hidden stories of the past. * Eric Cervini, Pulitzer Prize finalist and bestselling author of The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America * Deeply researched and evocatively written, Michael Waters's The Other Olympians impressively interweaves the lives of early 20th century trans and gender non-conforming athletes with the history of the modern Olympics, the rise of European mid-century fascism, and our complicated - and often nonsensical - attempts to define and regulate sex, gender, and the multitudinous human body. The Other Olympians adds crucial prehistory to understanding our modern thinking on gender and athletics. * Hugh Ryan, author of When Brooklyn Was Queer * A riveting and important work of history. 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. The Other Olympians is a book of great originality, deeply researched and beautifully written. * Jonathan Eig, author of King: A Life * Michael Waters has written a book that should revolutionize the way we think about sport and gender. By examining the history of the gender-diverse athletes who have always competed—as well as the systems that have tried to limit their participation—The Other Olympians is as relevant today as it would have been during the events it chronicles nearly a century ago. In showing us our history, we will perhaps not be doomed to repeat it. The Other Olympians is a warning; let us heed it. * Frankie de la Cretaz, co-author of Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women's Football League * The 1936 Berlin Olympics take center stage in Michaels Waters’ fascinating, erudite account of the lives and careers of acclaimed athletes who challenged the conventional boundaries between men and women, decades before “transgender” became a flashpoint in contemporary social struggles. He charts a clash of ideologies over how to regulate gender in international women’s sporting events -- and beyond -- that still animates headlines today. * Susan Stryker, Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution *


The Other Olympians is a stunning addition to queer and sports history, an inspiring and cinematic account of perseverance, identity, activism, and, ultimately, joy. Michael Waters has achieved what all great historians aim to do: changing our understanding of the present by illuminating the hidden stories of the past. * Eric Cervini, Pulitzer Prize finalist and bestselling author of The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America * Deeply researched and evocatively written, Michael Waters's The Other Olympians impressively interweaves the lives of early 20th century trans and gender non-conforming athletes with the history of the modern Olympics, the rise of European mid-century fascism, and our complicated - and often nonsensical - attempts to define and regulate sex, gender, and the multitudinous human body. The Other Olympians adds crucial prehistory to understanding our modern thinking on gender and athletics. * Hugh Ryan, author of When Brooklyn Was Queer * A riveting and important work of history. 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. The Other Olympians is a book of great originality, deeply researched and beautifully written. * Jonathan Eig, author of King: A Life * Michael Waters has written a book that should revolutionize the way we think about sport and gender. By examining the history of the gender-diverse athletes who have always competed—as well as the systems that have tried to limit their participation—The Other Olympians is as relevant today as it would have been during the events it chronicles nearly a century ago. In showing us our history, we will perhaps not be doomed to repeat it. The Other Olympians is a warning; let us heed it. * Frankie de la Cretaz, co-author of Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women's Football League *


Deeply researched and evocatively written, Michael Waters's The Other Olympians impressively interweaves the lives of early 20th century trans and gender non-conforming athletes with the history of the modern Olympics, the rise of European mid-century fascism, and our complicated - and often nonsensical - attempts to define and regulate sex, gender, and the multitudinous human body. The Other Olympians adds crucial prehistory to understanding our modern thinking on gender and athletics. * Hugh Ryan, author of When Brooklyn Was Queer *


The Other Olympians is a stunning addition to queer and sports history, an inspiring and cinematic account of perseverance, identity, activism, and, ultimately, joy. Michael Waters has achieved what all great historians aim to do: changing our understanding of the present by illuminating the hidden stories of the past. * Eric Cervini, Pulitzer Prize finalist and bestselling author of The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America * Waters masterfully puts into focus the long-overlooked, yet remarkable stories of a cadre of Olympians who battled for their right to compete on the world’s biggest stage as their true selves. A crucial read for anyone interested in the intersection of sports, identity, and social justice. * Neal Bascomb, author of The Perfect Mile * Michael Waters’s account of queer athletes caught up in the global drama of 'Hitler’s Olympics', and its overlapping fanaticisms of racial and gender purity, feels as remote as a folk tale and as familiar as today’s Title IX battles. This is first-rate history — impressively researched and captivatingly told. * Sam Tanenhaus, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Whittaker Chambers: A Biography * Deeply researched and evocatively written, Michael Waters's The Other Olympians impressively interweaves the lives of early 20th century trans and gender non-conforming athletes with the history of the modern Olympics, the rise of European mid-century fascism, and our complicated - and often nonsensical - attempts to define and regulate sex, gender, and the multitudinous human body. The Other Olympians adds crucial prehistory to understanding our modern thinking on gender and athletics. * Hugh Ryan, author of When Brooklyn Was Queer * A riveting and important work of history. 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. The Other Olympians is a book of great originality, deeply researched and beautifully written. * Jonathan Eig, author of King: A Life *


Author Information

Michael Waters has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Wired, Slate, and Vox, among other publications. He was the 2021-2022 New York Public Library Martin Duberman Visiting Scholar in LGBTQ studies and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions
Latest Reading Guide

wl

Shopping Cart
Your cart is empty
Shopping cart
Mailing List