Stefan’s story tells us how trans people found one another in the unlikeliest of places, why trans athletes often hid their genders, and the conditions of intense scrutiny trans public figures faced. Despite the moral panic over trans women athletes today, there were actually far more trans men in sports in the 1930s! After submitting the final manuscript for Before Gender, I learned that Stefan had a trove of photos that were recently digitized. Most of his visual and literary depictions are still under copyright – and will be until 2029-2032 (95 years after the peak of his athletic fame), so I could only include a couple photos of him in Before Gender after paying off a licensing group. Thankfully, I can add more photos below.
Finally, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Michael Waters, author of The Other Olympians, for helping me with this research. His writing on Zdenek Koubek and his friendship with Stefan Pekar is heartwarming.
One of Stefan’s publicity photos from around 1936.
Stefan (right) at one of his final competitions at the Czechoslovak Athletics Championship, July 4-5, 1937 (source).
Stefan’s javelin throw at the 1936 July 5-6) Czechoslovak Athletics Championship (from the Czech National Museum)
Stefan’s shot put at the 1937 Czechoslovak Athletics Championship (Czech National Museum)
I colorized and restored this 1934 photo from Prague station before the Czechoslovak team left for London (source). Zdenek is the upper left and Stefan Is the bottom right.
“Koubek as captain of the women’s national team at the Women’s World Games in London.” 1934. Zdenek is at the front holding the flag. Stefan is two places behind him (one behind the sign carrier). From Merlínová, Lída, Zdenin světový rekord, (Prague, 1935), page 144.
Příběh české rekordwoman (2017) held many previously unpublished photos of Stefan and Zdenek together. Strangely, it misgendered both of them. I was luckily able to order a copy from Prague.
The ideal male friendship?
Stefan was repeatedly labeled “Koubek No. 2” by papers for coming out some months after Zdenek.
Despite winning many gold medals, Stefan continued to be “second” to Zdenek (The Republic, Oct 4, 1937).
There are so many delightful photos of Stefan and Zdenek together (The Minneapolis Star, Dec 12, 1935).
Another publicity shot with Stefan and Zdenek (from the Brno Encyclopedia).
I had to order physical photocopies of 20 pages of Lída Merlínová’s 1935 biography Zdenin světový rekord (Zdeneka’s World Record) from the Czech National Library. Zdenin světový rekord is an orphan work, meaning no one can publicly digitize or distribute the book legally until 2030. Even more frustrating: the book isalready digitized, but you have to be in the Czech National Library to access it!
Zdenek learns English while Stefan tries to sleep.
The Czechoslovak running team created a song about their success in London to the tune of the “Když jsem mašíroval ku hranci” (“When I Marched at the Border“) (Zdenin světový rekord, 214-15). They sang it on the way back to Prague.
I. When we left for London, everyone knew it would be hard work, we had no luck at all, the relay team had to suffer. Krausová did it quickly, she stopped at 60 meters, only Koubková and Pekarová went for the prizes again.
Chorus: The main thing is that we won eight hundred at the Games, They played the anthem for us, and saluted our flag.
II. We made up for it in Brussels, taking the first four places, Pekarka set a new record in the javelin, the so-called concrete one. Koubková ran like a horse, threw Lunn like an old tronik, all four of us girls high-fived each other, the Polish girls couldn’t keep up with us.
III. The editor was a lot of fun, he turned gray on the way to London and looked very miserable he only shaved once a week. But we were lucky in Brussels, he put us all in a taxi, and Koubková yelled, “Come on, old editor, pour it here!”
