Why do female gymnasts always look like that?

[LovelyBitOfHam]

I’m sure you know what I mean.

Hair tied back in a big scrunchie - the kind of scrunchie you last wore when you were 9 years old.

Glittery make up.

Plaits, braids and hair clips.

I understand a lot of sports have a uniform but ultimately, if you take a track and field athlete, a swimmer and a tennis player just before they perform, you wouldn’t really be able to tell which sport they play just by looking at them. But you can identify the gymnasts from a mile away.

It isn’t just at Olympic level either. Even the little girls in weekend gymnastic clubs have the same sort of style.

Is it some kind of male gaze thing? Or is there a “type” of girl who grows up wanting to be a gymnast? I’ve always associated gymnasts with the sort of girls who didn’t really grow up, but I’ve now realised just how wrong that is.

I think what they can do is incredible, and Simone Biles is great. But there’s something about the “look” of gymnastics that’s always bothered me, and I can’t put my finger on what it is. Anyone else?

@masomenos They remind me of those little pageant girls.

I have no idea what a "little pageant girl" is.

The track and field athletes, the soccer players, windsurfers, tae kwon do competitors, swimmers, fencers, cyclists, surfers, sailors, triathletes, heptathletes, climbers, skateboarders - all totally unremarkably dressed.

Because those sports aren't about artistic performance whereas gymnastics (partly) is. This has already been explained to you.

It’s the little girl look (for gymnasts)

You have a really weird perspective on "little girls."

But it was definitely there and to a small extent (and definitely at the non-Olympic level) still is. Cheerleaders have cornered the teen-girl look, and gymnasts the little girl look.

You keep going on and on and on about a supposed "little girl look" but you haven't been able to explain what that is. I don't see how gymnasts look like "little girls," and I think it's highly probable that you don't know either.

You know what they mean by “little pageant girl”. You do.

Why are you pretending you don’t?

Okay I'll bite

Little pageant girl look consists of extremely styled hair with at least 1 can of hairspray plus glittery gel, enough make up in one go that I wear in a month and false eyelashes that sweep the ceiling

Not seen anything like that on the gymnasts

@LovelyBitOfHam You know what they mean by “little pageant girl”. You do.

No, I don't. Like all normal people, I don't have an interest in "little girls", so what makes you think I know what that is?

I find the look of gymnasts noteworthy and unsettling, others don’t. To each their own.

But no one has explained why in a way that has any evidence behind it.

I don't have any girls. I have no direct involvement in the sport. I see nothing noteworthy about current gymnasts that I don't also see in many other sports and no one on here has explained what they're actually referencing.

Did you low key just accuse people of being nonces for knowing what little girls in pageant look like? 🤣, wow

No one is providing photos because they have realised there is NO proof...

We can definitely post photos of other female athletes with bows and make up and "girly stuff". Because I HAVE.

Signed, someone who would look like a sack of jelly in a leotard and who rarely wears make up and has no balls in the gymnastic game

I'm interested to know what part of showjumping and dressage riders' outfits are "frankly bizarre"? I've taken part in both these types of competition over many years.. The dress code is, in my opinion, based on rider safety (head gear, long boots, stock, gloves) to prevent serious damage to head/neck, feet/ankles/leg bones/, gloves to prevent sweat on horse's neck/shoulders compromising the control of the horses' speed/direction during the competition.

Ok, since nobody volunteering any pictures, here are the first couple I pulled from google. Exhibit one is the recent photo from Paris Olympics. Exhibit two is a picture from girl pageant which, supposedly, look similar.
I think, we've established that hair buns are for safety. Other than that, someone please highlight what you are referring to as far as similarities between the two.

I genuinely have no idea what “little pageant girl” means in reference to a modern elite gymnast.

So please, instead of insisting everyone else is being silly, provide an example. Show us an example of an artistic gymnast in competing in Paris while made up to look like a little pageant girl.

Would a gymnast lose points if she wore a sparkle free Leo, no make up and hair in a pony tail?

No

Look up the code of points. Nothing on offer for those things.

They don't wear the whole 'scrunchie pony' tail thing now. It's mainly a competition bun and you are told to wear your hair like that. Definitely no glittery make up.

For training the de rigeur look is actually a super scruffy half up half done ponytail (like pulled through but not completely).

Daughter is a compulsory gymnast.

You need to get a life!

No, not at all. Many do this - most actually don’t wear much makeup and many don’t wear any.

Longer ponytails are rarely worn because they are less functional than a bun. I understand that someone who has never competed in gymnastics wouldn’t know this, but I am telling you as someone who did so for years that it HURTS to have your ponytail whip your eyes while flipping. Ponytails also don’t stay up as well without being redone mid-meet. So you’ll usually only see ponytails when the hair is too short to form a bun of some sort, or the gymnast’s hair type means their ponytail doesn’t have much movement. In practice most do a ponytail with the end not pulled through, so a sort of low-effort bun effect.

Here’s Oksana Chusovitina who had a late injury that took her out of qualifying for Paris - it would have been her 9th Olympics.

An awful sport. Amy Tinkler lifted the lid on the abuse that goes on and looks are a big part of it.

And that's why they aren't supplying photos and are saying we don't need them

They know it's pointless

One of our 400m relay runners had a bow in her hair. She also didn't look like a Pageant Girl

You know what, I’m just going to post actual photos of actual gymnasts from the Paris Olympics until we find a ‘little girl pageant’ look with ribbons in the hair and heavy makeup.

First up, obviously, Simone Biles:

Rebecca Andrade. I love her make up, and there’s nothing young about it:

Kaylia Nemour wears a scrunchie, oh the horror!

Alice D’Amato, part of a really great Italian team this time round. Beautiful, elegant gymnast. I see nothing little girlish about her.

Manila Esposito, showing why you need your hair firmly tied back, and demonstrating a face full of heavy make up. Oh wait, no.

Becky Downie obviously spent hours on her glittery makeup and hair bows.

In fact, you could put any one of them in a tracksuit and you’d have no idea whether they were gymnasts, climbers, triathletes or anything else. Because what they are is professional elite sportswomen, and that’s what they look like.

She is incredible.

Here's a few more Olympians wearing hair bows and scrunchies and make up and even jewellery...

The GB Rugby team was when they qualified, couldn't find a picture of them in play where they had bows and ribbons in.

Anning has a belly button piercing in to do her runs!