The official Nike uniforms for the US women’s athletes competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics have been criticized by one track and field athlete as “patriarchal costumes” due to their revealing swimsuits and leotards, while a commenter on Nike’s Instagram page said they “treat women as second-class citizens.”
Meanwhile, France has come under fire for its decision to ban female athletes from wearing the hijab.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has allowed international athletes to wear the hijab, but French female athletes will still be barred from exercising their right to wear the outfit of their choice during the Summer Olympics, which began on Friday and run until Aug. 11.
Whether it’s about sexist clothing or a ban on the headscarves worn by some Muslim women, activists say the directive could infringe on women’s freedoms and needs: Women should be allowed to wear what they are comfortable in, they say.
Take the debate over women’s clothing in athletics.
Why are Nike’s uniforms for the upcoming Olympics being criticized?
In April, athletics website Citius Mag published a first look at the Nike uniforms for the men’s and women’s U.S. track and field teams competing in the Paris Olympics.
The men’s costumes consist of tank tops and shorts that reach the mannequin’s fingertips, while the women’s leotards are high-cut and reveal bikini lines, drawing the ire of female athletes.
“An outfit born from the power of the patriarchy,” US track and field athlete Lauren Fleshman described the outfit in an Instagram post.
“If this clothing was really good for athletic performance, men would wear it too,” she says.
US Paralympian Jaline Roberts wrote about an image of Nike’s new kit: “These mannequins are stationary and all exposed…think MID FLIGHT.”
“Shame on Nike for treating women like second class citizens with their Olympic attire,” wrote another commenter on Nike’s Instagram page.
But others pointed out that female players can choose from a variety of designs and can even wear men’s uniforms if they choose.
“I think the people who are championing women are really great, but our uniforms, the tops and bottoms, there are at least 20 different combinations,” Olympic pole vaulter Katie Moon said.
Sports giant Nike defended the outfit, saying its “goal was to provide options that met athletes’ desires for choice, comfort and performance.”
The company described the kit as “the most athlete-informed, data-driven and visually consistent kit it has ever produced.”
Why did France ban athletes from wearing the hijab?
In September, France’s Sports Minister Amélie Oudea Castellas justified the hijab ban by saying the government was opposed to the display of religious symbols during the world’s biggest sporting event.
The IOC ruled that athletes are free to wear headscarves, but French athletes still must follow the rules of their national sports federation and are not allowed to wear hijabs during the games.
Muslims make up about 10 percent of France’s population, and human rights experts say the hijab ban is part of a trend in which policymakers are using France’s tradition of “laïcité” (secularism) to “weaponize” Muslim women and girls from French society. They point to laws passed in 2004 and 2023 banning the wearing of headscarves and abayas, loose, long-sleeved robes, in public schools.
Timothée Gautierro, basketball coach at Noisy-le-Sec, a suburb of Paris, told Al Jazeera that few girls in France who wear the hijab dream of becoming professional athletes because “there is so much discrimination against them.” “They don’t allow them to reach that level,” he said.
But this isn’t something that started in April or even September: Female athletes have long been unhappy with the uniforms they are required to wear for their sports.
The Norway women’s team plays against Greece during the 2018 Women’s Beach Handball World Cup Final in Kazan, Russia, on July 29, 2018. In 2021, the team was fined for refusing to wear bikini briefs in a match. [Ilnar Tukhbatov/Epsilon/Getty Images]
Has a female athlete ever protested against the kit rule before?
From 1934 to 1997, the uniform of the England women’s cricket team consisted of a white blouse and a white separate skirt. Trousers were only introduced in 1997, at the request of female players. In 2018, US tennis champion Serena Williams wore a full-body red and black catsuit at the French Open. She had recently given birth, and the suit was specifically designed to prevent blood clots. The World Tennis Association (WTA) had no explicit rules banning the wearing of full suits at tennis tournaments. However, her outfit sparked outrage, and the president of the French Tennis Federation imposed a new dress code and banned the suit at future French Opens. However, in the 2019 season, following criticism and backlash, the WTA announced that women who do not wear skirts would be allowed to wear leggings or compression shorts. In July 2021, the Norwegian women’s beach handball team decided to wear shorts instead of bikini bottoms to play in matches as part of their advocacy for clothing choice. This resulted in fines of 150 euros ($177) per athlete. Men, on the other hand, had the right to wear shorts as long as they were four inches above the knee and not too baggy. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the German women’s gymnastics team wore ankle-length bodysuits instead of bikini-cut unitards because they were deemed too revealing. “We wanted to show that every woman, everyone, should be able to decide what to wear,” team member Elisabeth Seitz told CNN.
Do sports equipment regulations prevent women from participating in professional sports?
Research on the subject is limited, so it depends on who you ask.
Professors from Massey University in New Zealand conducted a research study to evaluate the impact of uniform design on female athletes’ self-confidence, the results of which were published in February.
The study, which interviewed women across a range of sports from New Zealand’s national sporting organisations, showed that sports kit designs “may increase anxieties among female athletes, particularly around body image, visible menstrual blood and the visibility of underwear when wearing uniform”.
British hockey player Tess Howard also studied the subject while a student at Durham University, concluding that gender-specific sports uniforms, such as skirts, cause teenage girls to drop out of sports. Her study of more than 400 women was published in April. Seventy percent of women surveyed said they had seen girls drop out of sports because sports uniforms made them feel concerned about their body shape.
Victoria University in Australia surveyed 727 female students to find out their thoughts on sports uniforms, with 65% saying they didn’t want to wear skirts while playing school sports.
Is women’s sportswear too sexy?
Another reason many women shy away from professional sports, experts say, is that female athletes too often receive too much attention for their clothes and body image rather than their ability and performance.
“It’s unfortunate that so much attention is focused on the appearance of female athletes rather than their strength, grit and performance,” Danette Layton, CEO of the New York-based nonprofit Women’s Sports Foundation, told Al Jazeera in a statement.
“We believe that clothing should empower athletes to perform at their best, not overshadow their efforts or invite undue scrutiny.
“There is an opportunity for the sport’s governing bodies, sponsors and all involved to be more thoughtful and inclusive,” Layton said.