Karim Zidan

Jay Lanns

About The Author

Karim Zidan is an award-winning investigative journalist from Cairo, Egypt, who has reported on the intersection of sports and politics for more than a decade. He is a regular contributor to The Guardian, and has been published by The New York Times, Foreign Policy, among others. His reporting on authoritarian states has led to numerous award nominations, and has been featured in documentaries for HBO, BBC, and CNN. In 2023, he launched Sports Politika, a reader-supported media platform and newsletter dedicated to his niche. He was awarded a 2026 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Prize for The Ultimate Strongmen.

Books by Karim Zidan

The Ultimate Strongmen

MMA and the Rise of the New Authoritarian Right

From Karim Zidan, award-winning investigative journalist who has spent the past decade embedded at the intersection of sports and politics, an “indispensable guide” (J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Prize) to the intertwined relationship between mixed martial arts, hypermasculinity, and autho...
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