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Ever since the Norwegian women’s beach handball team turned the fact that they had to wear tiny bikini bottoms while competing into a good cause, there has been a quiet revolution across women’s sports. This challenges conventions about what female athletes should or should not wear to perform at their best.
It also influenced many other fields, including women’s soccer (why white shorts?), gymnastics (why unitards and not leotards?), field hockey (why low-cut tank tops?), and running. I’ve given it.
So it probably didn’t come as a shock to Nike that it shared a glimpse of Team USA Track and Field during the Nike Air event celebrating its Air technology in Paris on Thursday (the event also included It also included images of Olympic athletes.) (Kenyan track and field team, French basketball team, South Korean breakdancing delegation, etc.), they received less than enthusiastic responses.
The two uniforms Nike specifically selected for the mannequins include a men’s compression tank top and mid-thigh-length compression shorts, and a women’s bodysuit cut very high on the hips. I was there. It looked like a sporty version of a 1980s training leotard. The bodysuits on display looked as if they required intricate intimate grooming.
Citius Mag, which specializes in running news, posted a photo of the uniform on Instagram, and many of its followers were not amused.
“Who designed women’s haircuts?” I wrote one.
“I hope USATF pays for the bikini wax,” another wrote. Most of the more than 1,900 comments were similar.
Running comedian Laura Green pretended to try on the look on Instagram (“It feels so good, it’s refreshing,” she said) and checks out the rest of the athlete’s kit bag. I posted a pretend reel. It includes hairspray, lip gloss, and a “hysterectomy kit” so women don’t have to worry about their periods.
When asked, Nike did not directly address the controversy, but chief innovation officer John Hawk said women’s bodysuits and men’s shorts and tops are among the options Nike offers Olympic runners. There are only two. “There are nearly 50 unique pieces for both men and women, and more than a dozen competition styles that are fine-tuned for specific events,” Hawk said.
Women can choose compression shorts, crop tops or tanks, and bodysuits with shorts rather than bikini bottoms. The full look was not shown in Paris, but details are expected to be revealed at the United States Olympic Committee’s media summit in New York next week. The Paris release was meant to be a teaser.
Hawk also noted that Nike consults with many athletes at every stage of uniform design. The roster of track and field athletes includes Shakari Richardson and Ashing Mu, who happened to be wearing compression shorts during the presentation in Paris. There are certainly some runners who prefer high-cut briefs. (British Olympic sprinter Dina Asher-Smith, another Nike athlete, told the New York Times last summer that while she chooses to run in briefs, she also leans into leotard styles rather than two-pieces.) said.)
But what Nike missed was choosing these two looks as the primary preview for Team USA rather than, say, the matching shorts or tank that would also be released, reinforcing long-standing inequalities in the sports world. That was it. Female athletes’ bodies are displayed differently than male athletes.
“Why do we present this sexualized costume as a standard of excellence?” says Lauren Fleshman, American distance runner and author of “Good for a Girl.” “Partly because we think that’s what brings the most financial gain from sponsorship and NIL opportunities, but most of it is done by powerful men and people who see it through male eyes. But in a sport where you basically don’t have to wear a bathing suit to perform, women are breaking ratings records.”
The problems that such images pose are twofold. When Nike introduced a high-cut bodysuit as its first Olympic costume, Fleshman said, intentional or not, it meant to those watching that “this is what excellence looks like.”
That awareness trickles down to young athletes, often becoming the model they think girls should adopt at a developmental stage when their relationship with their own bodies can be particularly challenging.
More broadly, given the current political debate over the adjudication of women’s bodies, the idea that women’s bodies are public property is reinforced.
Still, Fleshman said, “I’m glad that Nike is sharing this image with the world as a design treasure for the Olympic team.” Because this could be the start of a new, long-awaited conversation.
“If you showed this dress to anyone in the WNBA or women’s soccer, they would laugh in your face,” she says. “We don’t need to normalize that for athletics anymore. We’re running out of time.”
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