As a former Division I runner, I understand the complex debate surrounding Nike's Olympic uniforms.

“Why is my crotch So small? “

A friend and I were standing side by side in the athletics office at Columbia University. It was a cavernous, semi-corporate retreat, part of a network of underground passageways behind a very old, very gray fitness center.

We stared at the new uniforms issued by the team's designated sponsor, New Balance. The singlet wasn't particularly radical, just layered white with Pantone 292, Columbia's signature shade.

It was the second piece of new race gear that gave us pause.

It was studded with traces of a roaring lion (so faint it looked like just a dull polka dot pattern), and on the bottom was a laughably frivolous piece of fabric about the width of a large safety pin. covered the underworld. I remember using the term “inverted T-back.”

“Vans,” as they are colloquially called among runners, are essentially bikini briefs. There isn't much fabric to play with, let alone cut out.

Nevertheless, Nike somehow managed to cut one of its offers for female track and field athletes to compete in the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Buns Repulsion

Recently, Citius Magazine shared a preview of the men's and women's uniforms on mannequins on Instagram, sparking an instant backlash against the skimpy, ultra-high-cut women's leotards. Men's options showed tank tops and spandex bike shorts.

“My labia is fighting over which one will fit in the suit,” one user wrote in the comments section of the now-viral post.

“Men's sports always get more coverage,” said another with a wry smile.

Oisel, a Seattle-based women's running apparel company, joked, “If we run out of fabric after designing the men's kit…” . ”

In response to the post, many professional athletes also expressed their dissatisfaction with the uniforms.

Tara Davis-Woodhall, the American long jumper who finished sixth at the 2021 Tokyo Games, wrote: “Wait, hoo-hah is out.”

“This mannequin is stationary and everything is visible…imagine MID FLIGHT,” wrote Jalene Roberts, a Paralympic long jumper on Team USA.

Harrison Clay, an American hurdler and former Olympic champion, tagged the European Wax Center in a comment on Citius' post and asked, “Would you like to sponsor Team USA at the upcoming Olympics?” Stated.

Former five-time NCAA champion Lauren Fleshman slammed leotards on Instagram, calling them “garments born of patriarchal forces that are no longer welcome and don't need to draw attention to women's sports.” did.

“Sorry, but please tell me one WNBA or NWSL team that would enthusiastically support this kit,” she wrote. “Women's kit should help their performance both mentally and physically. If this costume really helped their physical performance, men would wear it too. is not an elite track and field athletic kit.

Freshman's opinion echoes what many others have said since Nike introduced the uniforms. There's a good reason for that. Although the norms governing dress in professional women's sports are slowly evolving, they are still heavily influenced by the sexist ideals to which we are aligned as a society.

In response to the uniform's negative reviews, Nike Chief Innovation Officer John Hawk said in a statement: “Nike prioritizes performance and performance, offering athletes a wide range of silhouettes for different sports disciplines, body types, and sizes. “We have designed the Paris 2024 Athletics Kit for this purpose.” Maximum breathability. ”

Various blessings obtained by wearing bread

As any runner, professional or not, knows, you run best when you feel comfortable and empowered. It is therefore noteworthy that many elite female runners consistently choose to compete in Vans for multiple reasons. The problem with Nike's leotard selection is that, as far as the mannequins go, the cuts are unnecessarily high.

But the problems with Olympic leotards aren't just limited to sexism. Women's running's skimpy, tight uniforms may be comfortable and popular, but they can exacerbate body image and eating disorder issues already endemic to the sport.

If the Olympic uniform, which represents the gold standard for competitive athletes, is this ultra-revealing version, how seriously are we thinking about the impact this will have on impressionable female runners? , what does it mean?

As an athlete, you're used to thinking about your body quite a bit. What you put into it, how you feel during a workout or race, and almost inevitably, how it looks. For competitive runners, this often comes down to toned legs and defined abs. On the surface, this is an innocuous implication. If you expect to perform at a high level, you need to do some physical conditioning.

However, with the pervasive culture of “thinner, faster”, body image concerns are not only widely felt, but also so commonplace that many elite college students and professional runners engage in various disordered eating habits. I'm falling into it. My team was no exception. During my time at Columbia University, I watched many teammates and close friends descend into full-blown eating disorders, many of which stemmed from a desire to get healthy as quickly as possible. .

It's important to note that while Nike's leotard variety is horribly small, there are more than 25 style combinations for female athletes. This fact is not noticed by many outside of her running community. It will be very different from the 2021 European Beach Volleyball Championship. The Norwegian women's team was fined for refusing to wear skimpy bikini bottoms during the bronze medal match and instead wore shorts.

American pole vaulter Katie Moon also highlighted the diversity of costume options while leveling her own criticism of leotards, writing on Instagram: The only option, it would be), even if it's the best of intentions, you're ultimately attacking our decision as women to wear it. ”

“And I honestly think that on the most important day of our careers, we choose the clothes we wear to appease the men who are watching over us so that we can be the most comfortable, confident, and perform to the best of our abilities.” If so, that's pretty unpleasant,'' she added.

I have some mixed feelings about the buns.

First of all, let me say that there is absolutely no problem with wearing them. Vans' small size and easy-to-move waistband have many benefits. Many female runners find Vans to be more comfortable and stay in place than traditional shorts.

When I was in college, I liked wearing panties during games. Gone are the middle school days of wearing parachute shorts that puffed up like pastries in your thighs. The Vans were little deviation from the swimsuits I wore on summer days at the Jersey Shore, but they justified my status among an elite group of Division I runners. In a somehow sacred and completely brazen way, they cemented my status and showed me that I had “succeeded” as an athlete.

This attitude is widely shared by women across the running community. In a 2023 New York Times feature on uniform expectations in women's running, Fleshman described the Vans as a “badge of honor,” a feeling echoed by more than a dozen interviewees at the college and professional levels. The newspaper pointed out that it was also shared with others.

“The association between small, tight uniforms and success remains a double-edged sword for many, potentially evoking both power and discomfort,” wrote Nell Gallogly of the Times.

However, wearing a tight-fitting, barely-there uniform definitely has many negative effects.

The Vans culture at Columbia University was unwavering. So if you're a mid-distance or long-distance runner (I was a vacillating group among the groups I went to for spec purposes), it made sense to wear Vans. They had the option of wearing shorts instead, similar to the Olympic team. However, it was considered strange to do so. The choice to wear shorts was one filled with doubt, silence, and judgment. The lack of uniformity is probably due to the optics. But my gut feeling is that the style standards in elite running were so entrenched that anything other than a few inches of fabric from the front was considered taboo. Not to mention, we now get to show off a little more of our bodies to the world, as if to say:this Although it is often unhealthy, it is a standard to aspire to. ”

I remember when my teammates ate the bread and started crying. She caused panic among other teammates, spectators, coaches and officials. Cellulite may be visible on Al's legs.

And it wasn't just bread. I experienced something similar after returning to campus for my sophomore year. It felt a little swollen due to the second wave of puberty and weight lifting. I immediately felt insecure about the skin-tight tank top I wore to the race, but I told myself I had no choice but to lose a few pounds. Similar to Vans, no one wore the loose-fitting tank top option.

These are not unreasonable concerns. It's a very high-profile event in college sports, especially at the DI level.There was always a professional photographer at our races ready to take photos every angle.

Along these lines, vans and close-fitting fabrics, ubiquitous in elite running, play heavily into the psychological elements of the sport. Running is inherently an individual sport, and it takes a toll on your mind both during and outside of competition. It's no lie that reducing the amount of fabric can still result in faster times, especially in a sport where milliseconds matter so much. It undermines the logic underlying why some Olympic swimmers shave, wax and remove their beards before races.

But is less really more? This adage (the exact same one that has led to so many eating disorders, not just on my college team, but in the running world at large) is the fixation we use to make our sport's role model runners. framework, the problem extends beyond that. Blatant misogyny. Some may argue that the relationship between the two is tenuous. But having seen the insidious pressures of competitive sports with my own eyes, I feel determined to say that there are no limits, no seams, no seams in the potential for damage.