‘Life Is Not A Competition, But I’m Winning’: Venice Review

Dir/scr. Julia Fuhr Mann. Germany.  2023. 79mins

Accepting that history is written by the victors, Julia Fuhr Mann seeks to create a counter argument in Life Is Not A Competition, But I’m Winning. Described as a “documentary with fictional elements”, it challenges the rigid gender boundaries of competitive sports by shifting the focus to those consistently undervalued in official versions of the past. The result is a lively, eye-opening work celebrating women, black and queer athletes who have triumphed against considerable odds. Likely to attract specialist festivals and some streamers, it should make especially provocative viewing in the run-up to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Mann persuasively argues that those on the margins have constantly faced restrictions to keep them in their place

A queer feminist filmmaker, Mann is known for the experimental short Riot Not Diet (2018) celebrating the belly as a challenge to patriarchal norms.  Her starting point here is the modern Olympic Games, whose founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin is quoted as saying that “female athletes act against the law of nature”. A visit to the Olympic Stadium in Athens reveals a structure built to “create male heroes”. The narrator wonders if this has this ever been about fair play?.

Clearly, this is a film with an agenda, but one that is explored with insight, engaging personal stories and an element of poetic justice. Mann assembles a small gang of runners, activists and queer athletes who visit Olympic stadiums in Athens and Berlin, discuss shared experiences and the obstacles they have faced. There are telling moments when the group is inserted, Zelig-like, into black and white archive footage to offer their support and solidarity with trailblazing athletes from the past.

One of the film’s most striking features is the fresh perspective that Mann brings to the archive footage. The 1928 Olympics hosted the first women’s 800 metres race despite fears that “strenuous athletic competition could physically damage the weaker sex”. When one female competitor collapsed at the finishing line that became the story, rather than Lina Radcke winning Germany’s first gold in track and field events. The race was withdrawn and only reintroduced in 1960. Reclaiming neglected achievers continues in the stories of intersex Polish-American Olympian athlete Stella Walsh and African-American sprinter Wilma Rudolph, who became the first American woman to win 3 gold medals at a single games at Rome in 1960.

Mann persuasively argues that those on the margins have constantly faced restrictions designed to keep them in their place – and little has changed. Trans marathon runner Amanda Reiter talks of how she can feel a crowd’s anger as she chooses to run in the women’s category. Male runners growing irate at being overtaken fuel her desire to succeed. Intersex Ugandan runner Annet Negesa reveals the impact on her life of changes to rules governing female athletes with high levels of naturally occurring testosterone. Obliged to reduce her testosterone levels if she wished to compete in the women’s category, she underwent surgery resulting in damage that effectively ended her elite career. 

A tapestry of individual stories feeds into the bigger picture of competitive sport as an arena that lacks inclusivity and blocks progress. Mann’s gang of athletes consider a wide-range of issues around gender, acceptance, commercial pressures and conformity. The creation of this support group brings a positive, idealistic spirit to the film, contributing to a sense of what could be possible if everyone was just given a fair chance to perform at their best.