- Team USA's bodysuit is reigniting the conversation about women's sportswear design.
- Former runner Lauren Fleshman said if revealing clothing was effective, men would wear it too.
- In recent years, women have been seeking more modest uniform options.
Skimpy red, white and blue bodysuits took the track and field world by storm on Friday, alongside more modest men's bodysuits.
Team USA's bodysuit, first featured by running outlet Citius Mag as an item to be worn during the Olympics, drew ire and ridicule from female track and field athletes and highlighted how far the sport has come in building an equal society. This has been a hot topic among many athletes. The playing field and how far it still has to go.
After the flashy unitard was unveiled, athletes joked that they would need a thorough waxing to wear the women's unitard. On the mannequin, at least the side of the crotch was fully visible. Others wondered if it was possible to wear the clothes while running, vaulting or hurdles without risking a major wardrobe malfunction.
Some track and field athletes defended the costume. According to the Washington Post, Olympic long jumper Tara Davis Woodhall called her outfit “beautiful” in person at a media gathering of Olympic and Paralympic athletes on Tuesday.
Nike, which designed the suit and displayed it along with dozens of other design kits during Thursday's Paris event, pointed out that the bodysuit is just one unified version of about 50, and is self-defeating. defended. There was also a shorts option.
Jordana Kutcher, Nike's vice president of global sports apparel, also told the Post that some female athletes specifically requested unitards.
Nike did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
When Queen Harrison Clay, a sprinter and hurdler who competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics, sought a new company to sponsor her upcoming Olympics, she took a more humorous path.
“Hello @europeanwax, would you like to sponsor Team USA at the upcoming Olympics?! Thank you,” she wrote in an Instagram comment.
Harrison-Cray told Business Insider in an interview that this light-hearted approach is just a reflection of how she interpreted the campaign. In her opinion, there is sexism involved in Nike's decision to display a tiny bodysuit, but she says there are two sides to every story.
“Why do we present this sexual costume as a standard of excellence?”
For Harrison-Clay, the controversial uniform cut “made no sense from an athletic or aesthetic point of view,” but it meant Nike should scrap the idea of having another option altogether. It wasn't.
“The great thing about athletics and women is that we are not a monolith,” Harrison-Clay said. “For some women, they can look at that and think, 'Oh, it makes me feel so cool, it makes me feel sexy.' And they have a right to feel like themselves. …And a lot of female athletes will come up and be like, 'Oh, this cut is too small.'
Other athletes, like Lauren Fleshman, a former runner and author of Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man's World, took issue with the fact that the company chose to preview the revealing women's suit. he told The New York Times. Instead of putting two similar suits side by side, put them side by side with a hidden men's suit.
“Why are we presenting this sexualized costume as a standard of excellence?” Fleshman told the outlet. “Partly because we think we can get the most financial benefit from sponsorship and NIL opportunities, most of which are given by people in power and in the male gaze. .”
Harrison Clay echoed similar sentiments.
“There's always a sense that our value doesn't lie in our bodies, but in the performance our bodies perform,” she said.
broken record
Women are in the spotlight in sports like never before. Athletes like Naomi Osaka and Shakari Richardson are megastars with millions of fans.
Most recently, women's college basketball stars Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark have been in the news a lot.
Harrison-Clay agreed that while sport has made great strides in representing women fairly, inequalities still exist, citing pay disparities in athletics as an example.
She also noted that the problem is magnified for black women. Black female athletes are often oversexualized and portrayed as angry or evil. A recent example is when sports analyst Emmanuel Acho was called out after Reese highlighted racist and sexist attacks from viewers.
In recent years, revealing clothing in women's sports has attracted attention. A growing number of athletes are vocally questioning why their uniforms are so different from the men's.
Female athletes in sports such as gymnastics, volleyball, and track and field are sometimes required to wear bikini bottoms or short leotards. There is no technical reason why this difference exists. However, some women, like track and field athlete Katie Moon, who said she wore a bodysuit similar to Nike's controversial bodysuit at the previous Olympics, say skimpy clothing is better for you. Some argue. she.
“Women's kit should help their performance both mentally and physically. If this costume really benefits their physical performance, men will wear it too,” Fleshman said. wrote on Instagram.
And that's a big part of why female athletes have fought back.
In 2021, the Norwegian women's beach handball team was fined $1,760 for refusing to wear bikini bottoms during the European Championships. In response to their move, the International Handball Federation changed its rules to allow women to wear tank tops and bike shorts.
That same year, the German Olympic gymnastics team decided to compete at the Tokyo Olympics wearing ankle-length black bodysuits, similar to the men's style. Although the costume did not violate any rules, the team said it intentionally chose to wear full-body leotards to protest sexism among female gymnasts.
Harrison Clay says she wants to inspire the next generation of women to feel confident by being their “authentic selves” on the track. She stressed that women should wear what they want to wear while playing and said she is preparing to establish a social club to inspire young female athletes.
“All we can do in this generation is continue to nurture it for the next generation,” she said.
