The sexist rules of dress in sport have applied in the past, but in the opposite way. When did men race naked and women completely covered up?
A few days ago, the world was informed that the Norwegian beach handball players refused to play at the European Championships in the "prescribed attire", i.e. in bikinis, and instead entered the match against the Spanish players in shorts. However, this decision earned the athletes a fine from the European Handball Federation, as their attire was deemed "inappropriate" and the Federation stated that it "does not comply with the Uniform Regulations for Athletes defined in the Rules of the Game. " This decision, of course, did not go unanswered - besides the fact that the scandal began to resonate "overseas" and the payment of the fine (a total of 38,000 CZK) to the Norwegian team was offered by the singer Pink, saying that the European Handball Federation should be accused of sexism, the captain of the sanctioned team did not remain on the sidelines. The latter said in a Norwegian television broadcast that the rule referred to by the federation was "embarrassing". Her position was supported by the Norwegian National Handball League. The latter praised the entire team for "strengthening the voice of female athletes and emphasising the fact that everything has its limits ."
Although the differences in the dress code between female and male handball players are literally abysmal, no one has yet challenged the international rules. While men wear tank tops and shorts, women, according to the rules, should enter the court wearing bikini bottoms of a tight-fitting cut so that their side width reaches a maximum of 10 cm.
Although beach handball is not being played at the current Olympics, women competing in beach volleyball must follow similar rules - while men can wear loose shirts and shorts, women must again play in clothing that fits snugly around their bodies
However, it was not the beach volleyball players who took up the "fight" for less revealing clothing at the Olympics, but the women's gymnastics team from Germany, who performed in long-legged outfits. The aim was to contribute to the fight against the 'sexualisation of gymnastics', with female gymnasts traditionally performing in classic bikini tops since the 1970s, while men have the choice between long elasticated trousers and loose shorts depending on the discipline. "Every gymnast should have the right to decide what type of clothing she feels most comfortable in," said Elisabeth Seitz, a member of the German team. The sexism of Olympic fashion has a long and quite surprising history...
Drape those "female distraction bodies"!
When women were first allowed to participate in the Olympic Games, it was 1900 and the prestigious event was then held in Paris. In the words of David Goldenblatt, who wrote the book The Games: A Global History from the Olympics, personal correspondence between the organisers of the Games then showed that they were outraged by the presence of women, but had to bow to pressure and allow them to participate. The biggest concern was that the women's bodies would serve as a distraction to the male athletes, and so the female athletes had to cover up as much as possible. As reported by Fast Company, women at the time had to wear ankle-length, long-sleeved dresses and turtlenecks. It wasn't until a decade later at the London Olympics that women were allowed to show their lower legs. It was not until 1932, when women had been allowed to compete in swimming for 20 years, that close-fitting swimwear began to be used. And over time, for example, the outfits worn by sports teams to the opening ceremony also pointed to the wider struggle for women's equality - as exemplified, according to the Independent, by the opening ceremony of the 1964 Tokyo Games.
Even so, it is quite surprising how all the principles and rules have changed and shifted completely in the opposite direction over the years, with the body clothing of women athletes nowadays being, according to some, completely inappropriate and unnecessarily sexualised. In fact, not even a full century has passed and the attitude towards the clothing of female athletes has radically changed. In 1996, when beach volleyball was introduced at the US Olympics, women were required to wear vastly different 'outfits' than their male counterparts. While the men wore loose tank tops and shorts, the women had to step out in two-piece swimsuits. This rule was then updated in 2012, prior to the London Olympics, when the International Volleyball Federation added three more clothing options for female beach volleyball players to reflect the athletes' religious or cultural beliefs. It was in that year that the then Mayor of the city, now British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, wrote a text summarising 20 reasons why the Olympics are great. One of them was a point about women's beach volleyball, about which Johnson bluntly stated that "half-naked women playing beach volleyball glisten like wet otters...and the whole thing is beautiful and crazy."
Naked Olympics?
But if we were to move away from the controversies surrounding the appearance of men's and women's sportswear and instead look back deep into history, we would find that athletes in the past have been quite clear about their attire. Indeed, while today's modern footwear and sportswear/jerseys offer a number of great features, no clothing - and a naked body - has its undeniable advantages too. Well, at least according to legend. For according to one legend, in 720 BC, the Olympic athlete Orsippus of Megara lost his loincloth during a 185-metre race. However, in order not to lose, he decided to continue without it. And he won.
Orsippus' triumph then inspired the Adam's Clothes competition. In addition, the men anointed themselves with olive oil and the event became a tribute to the god Zeus. "Orsippus became the prototype of heroism and victory - but his nakedness was also celebrated," says Sarah Bond, associate professor of history at the University of Iowa. And she adds that the Greeks who subsequently began to go naked were actually showing their belonging to their nation.
So while cultural practices had long since changed by 1896, when the tradition of the Olympic Games was revived, and organisers had no thought of reviving the tradition of naked competitors along with the Games, for today's male/female athletes, clothing plays an important role in their performance - for example, in swimming, it not only clings tightly to the body but also keeps "everything in place". In 2008, the Olympics were even dominated by swimmers wearing a special polyurethane suit called the LZR Racer, designed by NASA scientists to reduce skin friction and compress the wearer's body - but the LZR Racer was subsequently banned precisely because of the unfair advantages of those who competed in it. So perhaps a "return to the roots" and original traditions would be worth considering. And then it would undoubtedly be interesting to await a new assessment of naked wet female (and ideally male) bodies by the current British Prime Minister...
