The Story of Mark Weston: Re‐centring Histories and Conceptualising Gender Variance in 1930s International Sport

I always imagined I was a girl until 1928. Then, competing in the world [track and field] championships at Prague Czechoslovakia, I began to realize that I was not normal and had no right to compete as a woman. But I only had the courage to see a doctor this year, when a London specialist said I ought to undergo two operations. . . . In the hospital I was placed in a men’s ward. After seven weeks of mingling with men I begun to get the correct atmosphere, now it seems quite natural to be a man. I found the alteration in my life rather difficult at the beginning. When I though myself a girl I used to powder my face. I never used lip stick. Before the operation I always wore women’s clothing.