Who decides what SHE wears?

The Tokyo Olympic Games concluded in the summer of 2021, athletes from all over the world lived up to their five-year preparation, played with a unexpected high level and finished countless excited games. In addition to the exciting event itself, many athletes have also attract our attentions. There are many athletes who not only skillful in their participate activities but also with a outstanding appearance and enviable bodies. However recently, I found that the normal competition clothes of various events we are used to are also very "interesting". Words don't say much, let's look at the picture first:

Do you feel anything wrong? Why do female athletes’ competition clothes usually more exposed than male athletes’ ? This does not only happened in these three events, but also in tennis and football. It's not an exaggeration to say that I have never thought about this problem. I always believe that athletes can choose their clothes as long as it meet the competition regulations and sponsor’s requirements. The reason that I thought of why female athletes choose to dress like this is just simply to show their bodybuilding posture during the sports events, and to distinguish themselves from those male athletes. Just as commentators often compare female athletes to "a beautiful scenery".

These naive thought has been invalidate when I see the news about the beach handball championship, the Norwegian woman's team was fined for refusing to wear bikini and wearing more comfortable gym shorts. They received a fine statement from the European handball Association, which said that: "the team was fined for a total of 1500 euros because of the improper clothing with more than 10 cm of ass covering."

There is no doubt to say that the only purpose for their decision is to pursue a better competitive level and hope to get rid of the restrictions bring by the uncomfortable competition clothes. This spontaneously make us think about whether the clothes we are used to for female athletes provide the comfortable sports conditions for female athletes？

To solve this problem we have to figure out a standard, and here comes the question “What should we use as the standard?”

This is a problem that people have been discussing for decades, but I think there is only one optical solution, that is "every athlete takes his own situation as the standard without affecting the fair competition." Due to the varies personal physical conditions for different countries’ athletes . Only themselves would know what is best for them.

Here is a very typical negative case. In our impression, women athletes usually appear on the court with short skirts, but it also brings them trouble. For example tennis which is a sport that needs to run left and right also jump up and down. At the 2018 French Open Tennis Championship, Serena Williams chose to wear black tight pants because she had just returned postpartum. Out of consideration of blood circulation and preventing recurrence of thrombosis, she was also very proud to be the first woman who wear pants in the championship. But the official response from the French Open is: "disrespect the rules of the game, disrespect the venue." This make me ask “what is respect for rules?” Is it to let a female athlete who has just returned postpartum to wear a short skirt with the risk of recurrent thrombosis?

Some people may ask, if give the entirely right of choosing the cloth to athletes how to ensure the standardization and appreciation of the game? In fact, the woman's Beach Volleyball in 2012 has made a change for this. It provides women athletes with four optional clothing styles, including bikini, shorts, trousers and trousers. This not only ensures the standardization of the overall competition, but also provides humanized choices for players Choose.

On July 25, the German woman's gymnastics team wore tights to participate in the qualification competition of the Tokyo Olympic Games. This is the dress they voted to wear. They claims that they are tired of the sexualization and materialization of woman's bodies by triangular high fork tights. And after the game, they said that the trousers made them experience unprecedented comfort in the game. They don't have to worry about the gym clothes sliding away when they are separating their legs.

In fact, we are not discussing what is more comfortable or suitable for female athletes, because if they like, they can play tennis in short skirts and sand volleyball in bikini. What the organizers can do is to provide athletes with choices, rather than using the exposed bodies of female athletes to increase traffic or exposure.

Sportswear is the work clothes for athletes. Without considering their safety and convenience at work, the organizer only focus on their appearance which shows that they valued woman's body more than their competitive ability. Sometimes, female athletes are required to wear more because wearing less is "inappropriate" and "will affect others' attention". But on other situations, they will be required to wear less for "feminization", for "ornamental" and "attracting sponsors" I think this is what the German woman's competitive gymnastics team pointed out that the field is "sexualized" for women.

However, it is good to see that the number of male and female athletes in this Tokyo Olympic Games is basically the same as the total number of events, and the flag bearer at the opening ceremony of each country is also composed of one man and one woman, and there will be more teams like the German woman's gymnastics team. This reflect a positive trend. But there is still a long way to go. Sports teach us to compete fairly, fight freely and overcome difficulties. Sometimes it would be difficult for use to change everything by ourselves, but we should stand with these female athletes who bravely break the outdated rules to create a more inclusive and equal future for sports!

And this change is only the beginning, in order to make this equality last, we need to make more efforts. We need to achieve sustainable development from the perspectives of institutions, social attitudes, and technology. Only through this change from the source can sports venues have a more advanced, scientific, and equal environment.