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

In The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports, journalist Michael Waters offers a compelling and accessible account of how sex testing in sport was born out of fascist ideologies. Based on extensive archival research and supported by footnotes, Waters traces how a “small cadre of officials, including a Nazi sports doctor and a number of Nazi sympathizers, first came up with the idea of medical exams to determine sex” in women's sport (283). The book centers on the life of Czechoslovakian athlete Zdeněk Koubek, who was assigned female at birth and competed in women's sports during the 1930s, before later undergoing gender affirming care to live as a man. Although Koubek and some of the other queer athletes discussed in The Other Olympians were assigned female at birth and perceived as women throughout their athletic careers, Waters refers to them only by male pronouns and the names they chose after transitioning, in accordance with their publicly expressed identities. This book review will do the same. Structured into four parts over twenty-one chapters, The Other Olympians illustrates how shifting conversations about sex—prompted by the public transitions of Koubek and a handful of other athletes in the interwar era—the ambitions of certain male sport leaders, and the rise of Nazism coalesced and led to the introduction of sex testing in sport.Part 1, “Triumph,” chronicles Koubek's early life and his success within the growing world of women's sports, led by French sports leader Alice Milliat and the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale (FSFI). Waters intentionally does not label Koubek “trans” or “intersex,” as these categories did not exist at the time and Koubek never identified as such. Instead, Waters describes Koubek's growing confusion about his gender and how “living outwardly as a woman had become untenable,” which convinced him to seek medical intervention (125). The initial public response to Koubek's transition was largely positive, though Waters is careful to note that this relative acceptance was likely due to his transition to male, race and class status, and alignment with heterosexual norms. Yet, as illustrated in part 2, “Enter the Nazis,” fascist ideologies changed the conversation about sex and therefore the reaction to Koubek and other queer people. Bolstered by eugenic nationalism, European fascists became increasingly “suspicious of trans people, intersex people, and really any woman they deemed too masculine” (176). Nazi officials started to push for the removal of “‘unsuitable elements’ from competitive sports, a group that seemed to refer variously to Jewish people, racial minorities, and gender minorities like Koubek” (135). When Nazi doctor Wilhelm Knoll suggested a mandatory physical examination to control who could compete in women's sport, the recommendation was embraced by ambitious sport leaders Avery Brundage and Sigfrid Edström, who wanted to wrest control of women's sport away from Milliat and the FSFI.Part 3, “Surveillance,” discusses the prospect of medical examinations against the backdrop of the Berlin Olympics. The public (and false) accusation that US runner Helen Stephens was a male imposter provided justification for Knoll, Brundage, Edström, and other male sport leaders who disliked women's sport to institute a physical examination. Yet it remained unclear what these early proponents of testing intended to achieve. Was it meant to exclude male imposters, intersex athletes, or simply women who looked too masculine? According to Waters, “There was no real plan, just an ambient sense of panic motivated by groupthink and pseudoscience” (204). Part 4, “After Berlin,” explores how narratives about Koubek contributed to an emerging myth that sport masculinized women athletes and that they were predisposed to gender transition. Waters explains that anxieties about gender heightened during the Cold War and rising geopolitical tensions offered new justification for compulsory, on-site testing.The Other Olympians draws a clear connection between fascist ideology and sex testing. It is therefore an essential and timely read, particularly amid the current debates about gender-based policies in sport. In March 2025, when Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, announced plans to reintroduce a screening method for all competitors in women's athletics, his justification echoed those used by sport leaders in the 1930s. As Waters notes, “Sex testing, from the start, was never about an actual threat to women's sports” (225). Rather, it was—and remains—a tool to police gender, reinforce a binary category of sex, and exclude those who do not conform.