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Original poster

Sporting apparel rules - men and women - can anyone explain?

52 replies

SpeakUpXXWomen · 01/03/2019 12:01

I am watching the European Athletics live from Glasgow and am struck by the difference in outfits worn by men and women. The blokes seem quite comfortable in a variety of shoulder to knee variations whereas the women are mostly in teeny tiny bikini type pants and cropped tank tops.

Is there a technical reason for this?

OP posts:
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EdtheBear · 01/03/2019 12:39

I think its fashion as much as anything. I noticed a couple of ladies wearing slightly longer shorts rather than the bikini briefs.

AssassinatedBeauty · 01/03/2019 12:45

No technical reason, there are no rules or requirements for it. It's fashion and what is typically the norm, rather than a rule (unlike beach volleyball...)

However, when running for a national team athletes are expected to wear team kit. If the team kit only provides a limited choice for women then that's what they will have to wear.

ErrolTheDragon · 01/03/2019 13:09

I suppose some of the 'cropped tanks' may be functioning as sports bras and not all women like having to add an extra layer?

Men, otoh, tend to need lower body support and containment which no woman does.

OMGithurts · 01/03/2019 13:13

I'm glad you posted this OP, I was wondering the same after watching it with DD (4) who asked "why are they running in their pants?"

Is it possible also that the female athletes have slimmer, less muscular legs than the men so have a thigh gap and no chafing issues? Presumably having lycra on your thighs would reduce friction compared with skin rubbing skin.

Oh and why are people wearing odd detached sleeves?

AssassinatedBeauty · 01/03/2019 13:17

The detached sleeves thing is definitely a fashion thing!

MillytantForceit · 01/03/2019 13:22

The Rule Says:

^In all events, athletes must wear clothing which is clean, and
designed and worn so as not to be objectionable. The clothing must
be made of a material which is non-transparent even if wet. Athletes
must not wear clothing which could impede the view of the Judges.
Athletes’ vests should have the same colour on the front and back.^

(Page 69:)

athleticssa.com.au/Portals/54/Documents/Rules/IAAF%20Competition%20Rules%202018-2019.pdf

In practice, there will be interpretation of the 'objectionable' clause. There was certainly a change in 1992 when the crop-tops and briefs first appeared in the Olympics, and Sally Gunnell ran in a leotard.

Quite a change from Anne Packer in her Norma Snickers.

Original poster
SpeakUpXXWomen · 01/03/2019 13:22

Long jumpers seem to have much more practical wear. If the team kit only provides a limited choice for women then that's what they will have to wear. The pressure must be immense, all the adjusting and camera scrutiny.

If I was forced to run in teeny weeny pants I would probably wear long socks and sleeves as an attempt to take my mind off it!

On the subject of fashion, I have noticed I struggle to buy what I want from Nike these days, I like loose joggies/yoga pants and they are all legging tight these days, not ideal when you aren't athlete shape! Also I weight train and have to buy buy men's tops now because the women's stuff is too tight for my arms. I bought a Nike hoodie recently to replace an old falling to bits one and it fit torso, shoulders and chest fine and loose but skin tight on my arms and could not even contemplate keeping it. I am definately not skinny but am a muscled 14 and that was a size large. I feel like men's gear is where the comfort is now.

OP posts:
MhairiV · 01/03/2019 13:31

Tennis is a good example of a sport with ridiculous rules on what women and men wear. Serena had a proper dingdong with the French Open president last year when he took a fit about her close-fitting Lycra not "respecting the game" or some such nonsense. It was designed by Nike (I think) as a compression garment which she needed to support health care requirements following a difficult labour and birth. It just looked like a black catsuit, basically. She then went out in compression tights and a tutu at the next tournament.

Cynics might suggest the menfolk in charge just have some sort of issue with the female body...

Jsmith99 · 01/03/2019 13:33

Presumably all the athletes have a choice of team kit of various styles, and which they choose to wear is down to personal preference. The men seem to have different kit for different events. The skinny distance runners generally wear a loose vest & shorts, while the muscular sprinters wear spray-on Lycra.

I imagine that if I had worked incredibly hard over many years to get a body like that, I would be very proud of it and want to show it off.

MillytantForceit · 01/03/2019 13:35

...Tennis?

In 2008 at the Olympics, Casey Delaqua was told she could not leave the court to change her shirt and had to do it at the umpire's chair.

Ten years later, Alize Cornet got an official warning for changing her shirt half-hidden behind the court screens and was told she should have left the court.

EdtheBear · 01/03/2019 13:35

I did wonder if the tops doubled as a bra. I'd be curious to know what choices they have.
I think I spotted a GB athlete in leggings.

I just wish i had the body to wear the crop tops Grin am I allowed to say that on here?

Original poster
SpeakUpXXWomen · 01/03/2019 13:37

I imagine that if I had worked incredibly hard over many years to get a body like that, I would be very proud of it and want to show it off.

I was thinking more of the bikini line maintenance and wedgie issues!

OP posts:
AssassinatedBeauty · 01/03/2019 13:39

Kelly Holmes always used to run in shorts rather than the bikini pants style. In the UK team kit there will be different styles available, I'm sure. I think if any of the UK women preferred to wear shorts they could.

silentcrow · 01/03/2019 13:42

Are the detachable sleeves not compression wear? It's been ages since I bought running kit but I know triathletes like them.

To my knowledge, Channel swimming is the the only set of rules that requires men to have skimpier kit than women - they must be briefs, no leg coverings. Women's kit must be an ordinary swimsuit (no legs or sleeves, nor a two-piece). I once saw a swimming adjudicator cut a man's board shorts right back to the tops of the thighs for a lake race running on those rules it was hilarious.

Jsmith99 · 01/03/2019 13:44

Tennis has repeated issues with women’s kit. A few years ago, Wimbledon became much more strict about enforcing their rule that players should wear white. Some of the women wore coloured sports bras under their white shirts, but were told to change into white ones before they could play. If they didn’t have, or couldn’t borrow, a white bra they had to play braless.

I wonder if it was men enforcing this rule?

MillytantForceit · 01/03/2019 13:46

...Naomi Broady, who does not get on with the LTA, responded to that by going without.

EdtheBear · 01/03/2019 13:49

Wimbledon and white, yip I think they'd object if men had visible bright underwear.
Whites the rules, did Mr McEnroe, not get sent back in for coming out in plain gray shorts?

AssassinatedBeauty · 01/03/2019 13:50

The detachable sleeves are marketing as compression sleeves. But wearing one for one race is not going to be about compression, it's about fashion.

andyoldlabour · 01/03/2019 16:30

Cathy Freeman the 5th fastest woman of all time over 400M, wore a 1 piece lycra bodysuit including hood back in 2000, which must have been very aerodynamic.
Cyclists, male and female wear identical clothing, again for aero purposes, the same applies to Winter sports - skiing, speed skating, biathlon.
I would have thought that a 1 piece skinsuit would have been ideal for male and female sprinters.

SardineQueenII · 01/03/2019 18:06

The womens gear is getting teenier I've noticed this esp in gymnastics the leotards don't cover their whole bums any more I can't see how it can be comfy.

Of course sports people as much as anyone else will tend to "fit in" and follow what others wear, lots don't like to stand out.

The idea that women and girls in sports are deliberately showing off their bodies is very very iffy, same as the idea that girls and women in other situations who are wearing clothes that are skimpy or short are showing off their bodies. It's a whole can of worms.

That comment has made me really uncomfortable.

SardineQueenII · 01/03/2019 18:09

Oh and while the womens gets teenier the mens get baggier in some areas eg football,

It's fashion.

And many women and girls who follow mainstream fashion are not deliberately "showing off their bodies".

SardineQueenII · 01/03/2019 18:11

A lot of sports seem obsessed with white

White is the most shit colour possible for women and girls.

How many girls drop out of disciplines where you have to wear white, when their periods start? If they are heavy or unpredictable. After an accident. Or just becasue it#s such a worry.

It's the little things that say, this was never really for you.

MillytantForceit · 01/03/2019 18:15

SardineQueenII

An oddity of gymnastics is the men have bare arms and covered legs but the women are the reverse.

(and it means 'naked exercise' in Greek.)

Jsmith99 · 01/03/2019 18:20

SardineQueenII
I was referring to athletes showing off their bodies, not specifically to women or girls.

SardineQueenII · 01/03/2019 18:21

Molly there is a reason female gymnasts are not bare chested.

I'm suprised that you can't see how the female outfits have got skimpier over the last decades but, I can't argue with what your eyes tell you.

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