HEADER BY YOSEF PHELAN (IMAGES: TOP LEFT: BUNDESARCHIV, RIGHT: @THECHRISMOSIER ON INSTAGRAM, BOTTOM: KYE ALLUMS VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

This is State of Play, a new column by GAY TIMES Contributing Editor Jamie Windust. Every month, Jamie will be jumping, running and diving head-first into the world of sport, movement and fitness.

Exploring queer sporting excellence at every level, they’ll also be reporting on the changes that need to be made in order to make the world of sport fully accessible to all within the community.

Now, here at GAY TIMES we know that trans people have been around for centuries, and we know that you know that too (duh!). But, did you know that in the world of sport, trans people have been hitting it out of the park – sometimes literally – for nearly decades?

Ahead of the Paris Olympics in July, let’s make sure we celebrate our trans history and learn about the trans sporting pioneers you need to know.

Dora Ratjen

In the language of today, champion high jumper Dora Ratjen would be considered to be intersex. However in 1938 the athlete’s identity was widely misunderstood.

Ratjen was raised as a girl, and competed in the high jump at the 1937 German Athletics Championship, where they won gold. In 1938, they broke the world record but the accolade was rescinded 20 years later after it was claimed that Ratjen was ‘a man’ by fellow competitors who deemed their win to be fraudulent. 

According to a 1966 article in TIME, Ratjen was forced to ‘appear as a woman’ by the Nazi regime to ensure Germany won more medals at the 1936 Olympics.