Breaking the Mold: How the Paris 2024 Olympics Challenge Women's Sports Attire
This trend has been spearheaded by the Paris Olympics 2024 through the concerns over the dramas that have surrounded the outfit of female athletes and some policies that are in place. Nike’s official attire for women; the oppressive attitudes and actions towards Muslim women in skimpy sportswear; France’s recent ban on hijabs have all elicited disappointments for the forward-looking but sexist and patriarchal attitude in sports.
They challenge the assertion that media freedom brings emancipation to women athletes, especially to the so-called ‘plus-sized’ women athletes because the media concentrates more on women’s appearance than their talent and hard work.
Nike's Olympic Kits: Structural Factors: A Patriarchal Design?
Nike released official kits of the U. S. track and field teams in April 2024 which attracted criticism. Players felt this was a provocation to ‘sexually objectify’ female athletes, as male players got longer shorts and tank tops. American track and field athlete Lauren Freshmen referred to it as the ‘costume of patriarchal fashion’ and asked why men were not given similar designs.
Another athlete, Jaleen Roberts, drew attention to the question of functionality, saying that even a lifeless model would be too revealing. However, I found that some athletes including the Olympic pole vaulter, Katie Moon, complained that women could wear a wide range of designs as those of men.
Nike also stood its ground saying that the outfits were designed based on athletes’ input and sought to offer options that would enhance comfort and performance. The company decided to refer to the kits as the most ‘athlete led’ and ‘analytics driven’ products it has released yet.
France’s Hijab Ban: Religious Freedom as a Question
To this view, there has been an escalation of controversy when France prohibited its athletes from wearing hijabs during the Olympic games. Whereas IOC permits other countries’ athletes into donning religious headscarves, French sportswomen are bound by the rules that have been prescribed by the National Sports Federations. This decision, justified by the French Minister of Sports Amelie Oudea Castera, can be made because of the French principle of secularism or ‘laïcité’.
Many opponents extend this mechanism as a discrimination only against Muslim women and a part of Islamophobia. Since France is home to a Muslim population of almost a decade of the total number of the country’s inhabitants, the ban of hijabs is regarded as one more effort to isolate women wearing it. Even coaches and human rights activists have noted that the kind of restrictions put in place deny many hijab-wearing girls a dream of being professional sportswomen.
Imane Khelif’s Stunning Transformation: From Olympic Gold to a Bold New Look
A Brief Look into the Controversies in Women’s Sports Kits
Disturbances relating to women’s sports dress code are not new at all. Women athletes have been breaking down those oppressive and sexualized dress code policies for years. Of equal importance is the issue that the Norway women’s beach handball team decided not to wear bikini bottoms, and, in 2021, the team was fined for wearing shorts. That attitude put the accent on the problem and provoked further debate on the equity of such regulations.
Likewise, tennis player Serena Williams was criticized in the same year when she wore a full-body catsuit at the French Open, to avoid blood clotting after childbirth. While the WTA finally agreed to allow compression shorts and leggings to be worn with an under-skirt, the scandal drew attention to how female athletes’ clothing must be strictly controlled.
In 2020, when the femininity of sports and especially gymnastics was being hit really hard by social media #MeToo advocates, the German women gymnastics team participated in the Tokyo Olympics wearing leotards as an act of asserting that they are the only ones who should decide what to wear on the stage.
Effects on the Use of Kits in Wearing by Female Participants of Sports
Scholars have proposed key findings that bear the notion that the appropriate sports kits can influence the confidence and engagement of female athletes. An online survey conducted by faculty from New Zealand’s Massey University also noted that wearing sports uniforms can further men’s control over women’s sexuality and body and make female athletes embarrassed about ‘showing off blood stains or underwear’. The others were that more acceptable and sensitive designs needed to be incorporated to increase participation levels in those sports.
Similarly, English hockey player Tess Howard’s survey also confirmed that wearing such gendered sports kits as skirts made teenage girls drop out of sports. Her survey showed that 70% of respondents said they had seen girls leaving sports because of their concern over their attire.
In the same vein, a similar study by Victoria University, Australia establishing the perception of female school sports, found that 65% of the girls do not want to wear skirts during school sports, establishing the result of the role of attire in positive participation of females in sports.
Sexy Design of Female Athletes' Costumes
Another area of major interest is the sexualization of women athletes’ uniforms. More often than not, the concentration is on the appearance of women athletes and what they are wearing. ‘It is sad that most of the time women athletes are judged by how they look and not by what they are able to accomplish on the field,’ said Danette Leighton, the Women’s Sports Foundation CEO. She called on the sports’ associations, sponsors, and other stakeholders to start approaching the issue of women’s sportswear more sensibly.
the bottom line
The focus should be satisfied in the misdeeds related to women’s bodies and abasing of the rights of female athletes in appropriate outfits at the Paris Olympics 2024. Whether it is the demeaning adverts by Nike on their controversial clothes’ designs or the recent ban on the Muslim women’s headscarves in France, these are factors that are slowly compelling women around the world to think of the freedom, rights, and comfort of women in sports. While people are amused by the Olympics, it is high time that female athletes be empowered and their capabilities be celebrated more than their clothing.