This book - and its audiobook - had me captivated from its beginning pages. The stories it tells are so important, both historically and in our current age, where gender hysteria, fear/hatred of nonconformity and sports continue to intersect on world stages like the Olympics and in small towns - especially in the United States.

I can’t recommend the book enough. It’s for readers interested in sports, politics, gender identity, queerness, LGBTQ rights and how they all intersect.

The narration of the audiobook was also great and made it an easy listen.

Thanks to FSG, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the ARC and ALC.

As the author points out, we like to think that progress is a one way street - obviously we must be smarter and more open minded in 2024 than people were in the 1930's, right? Especially about scientific subjects like sex and gender.

Yeah, no.

While it is unlikely that those who most need to learn about the origins of athletic sex testing will ever read this book, even those of us who are giving daily thanks to Imane Khelif for silencing you-know-who are most likely unfamiliar with the stories of Zdenek Koubek, Michael Waters, and other trans, intersex, and gender non-conforming athletes of the early 20th century. Trust me, you will be surprised by the media coverage the author has meticulously documented, and sadly less surprised but hopefully still horrified by the word-for-word sameness of the would-be regulators of all non cis-male bodies a century apart. Bonus points to the author for specifically calling out the New York Times.

If you're a sports fan, if you don't care about sportsball, if you love history, if the only history you care about is your browser's and who will clear it when you die...if you have a physical body that you don't consider to be public property - read this book. I promise you'll learn something worthwhile.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

This was such a great look into a forgotten part of history. I'm a big fan of the Olympics, so it was very interesting to learn about this era of sports and how it has gone on to continue to affect sports today. There are a lot of people referenced in this book, and sometimes it was a bit difficult to remember who was who, especially in audio format, but in general the author did a good job of focusing on the most important players.

Much of the current dialog around the rights of trans athletes presents this as a brand new issue that would have have been a problem in the great old days. But of course trans and other gender expansive athletes have always existed; what's new is the formalized rules around large sporting events. This book follows athletes and organizers in the 1920s and 30s and individuals' attempts to live with dignity and authenticity sometimes conflicted with structures of power. Some of the language has changed but many of the ideas expressed sound exactly like the "new" ideas of today. This is a valuable and engaging book.

A perfect read to start off Pride month, but also great for any time you feel the need to learn more Queer history. It's a perfect blend of world history, sports history, and historical narrative about changing perceptions of gender and sexuality. The "culture war" that is currently being fought is far from new, and it's fascinating to learn how long this struggle has been going on. Informative and engaging narrative nonfiction like The Other Olympians is rare, and what a treat it was to read!

The Other Olympians is a great look at the history of gender, and specifically gender nonconformity, in athletics. It explores a time period I knew very little about in an approachable and educational way that incorporates narratives following a variety of athletes and events and how they intersected and impacted one another. I feel like I learned a lot and really enjoyed to narration and the content. The narrator did a great job with the accents and variety of characters/timelines. They felt distinct without being disjointed or too different. I would recommend both the narrator and the book.

Very fascinating to see the Nazis to gender inquisition pipeline!

The Other Olympians as an audiobook is a nine-hour history of both women's participations in international sports (leading to their inclusion in the Olympics) and really how precious and personal other people get about what's going on with others. It is a mostly linear story woven together from historical documents and articles of the time (the early 1900s in and around, before and after the rise of Nazi Germany) but also personal letters and essays and accounts from those who lives the lives reported on here.

And outside of the Olympic history, it's stories of sex and gender history -- how gender transition was treated in the 1920s/30s (largely positive!), how the public mind saw these things, all while being very careful to explain to the listener certain terminology and mindsets of the time and how they would not match the more mainstream namings of today, and especially that there is no 100% black and white way to define sex-- not by chromosomes nor physical characteristics nor a multitude of other things.

Very important read to anyone interested in sports, women, LGBT issues, or who even has questions about 'should trans folks compete in competitive sports?' These are not new issues or concerns and gender nonconforming folks (who sometimes are not even trans but may not fit in what someone else may define as a woman or man!) have always been around and always living normal lives.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC in exchange for review!

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.

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.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing this audiobook for review consideration via NetGalley.

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.