Bikinis, shorts, long sleeves -- let female athletes wear what they want

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

As of last week, I had never heard of beach handball. Now it’s top of mind, thanks to the heroes of the Norwegian women’s national team. That’s another thing I did not know: that Norway has beaches warm enough for sports other than ice fishing.

Anyway, for years, the women of the Norwegian beach handball team have politely protested the . . . oh . . . what’s the word . .

-snip-

. . requirement that they compete while wearing tiny bikini bottoms. Their protests produced no changes from the European handball authorities. (Yes, there are European handball authorities. It’s possible that “rule maker” is the single largest employment sector in Europe.) So the women from Norway elected to make their own change. They decided for themselves to wear shorts.

Men play beach handball in shorts: proof that it can be done.

-snip-

But the handball authorities are learning the wrong lesson. To grow the popularity of beach volleyball, the ruling federation of that sport has empowered women with more uniform choices, not fewer. Women are free to continue wearing two-piece uniforms with minimal briefs. Some athletes prefer them, they say, because they trap less sand during the racing, leaping and diving of competition.

But guidelines also allow for long-sleeved uniforms preferred by some Muslim athletes and an assortment of styles in between. Most important, the rules say only that the two players that make up a team should agree on which uniform to wear for any given game.

Choice of uniforms not only respects the integrity of athletes. It also allows an outdoor sport to go global, unhampered by changes in cultures and climates. The preferred uniform in Malibu and Redondo Beach, Calif., may not work in Iceland or Egypt.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/23/women-beach-handball-bikini-uniform-fine-olympics/

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. Seriously, stop sexualizing male and female athletes.

The point isn't beefcake or skin....it's a friggen' competition. Let people dress - within reasonable standards - that don't impose sexualized clothing demanded by a bunch of horny old men.

[Enter stage left]

2. What is it we keep hearing from old white men about the vaccine?

"my body, my choice!"

It applies unless you are FEMALE!

Then it's your body, MY choice from the old fat white men.

Disclaimer, I am an old skinny white man.

[Tetrachloride]

3. Egypt takes its handball very seriously.

It has been top headline news on some occasions. National pride.

[Cracklin Charlie]

4. One of the gymnastics teams will be wearing the unitard.

I think they look great!

Making everyone wear the same thing is limiting and enhances stereotypes. Letting them wear what they want adds diversity and creativity. I’m for that.

[keithbvadu2]

5. 'glistening like wet otters' says the mayor

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/olympics-2012/olympics-2012-beach-volleyball-players-glistening-wet-otters-mayor-london-blast-benny-hill-music-skimpy-uniforms-article-1.1125503

[left-of-center2012]

6. What's wrong with having team uniforms?

Letting them wear what they want for something special like the Olympics I don't think fits the picture.

Let's take pride in our country and put on a good show.

[Doodley]

7. Change the dress code to thongs and viewership will go through the roof.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

8. These athletes should be allowed to wear the uniform they are comfortable in

[Marcuse]

9. Early Olympians competed in the nude.

If the modern Olympic Games ran true to the strict customs of ancient Greece they might well today have been called the "Naked Games". From the early 8th century BC, Olympic athletes competed in the nude.

There are indisputable records going back to Athenian philosopher Plato in the 5th century BC and even Homer's Iliad, as well as many explicit drawings that confirm it was common practice for all male track and field athletes to take part naked. This included the often dangerous sports of discus throwing, wrestling, boxing and horse racing without protective clothing. The only exception seems to have been for charioteers, who wore long white tunics.

The words gymnastics and gymnasium are based on the Greek adjective gymnos, which means lightly-clad or naked. The only adornment on the athletes' bronzed, muscular torsos would have been the gleam of olive oil with which they ritually anointed themselves.

According to Dionysius, of Halicarnassus, a writer in the 1st century BC, Greek athletes did not compete in the nude until the 15th Olympiad in 720BC, more than 2700 years ago. That was more than half a century after the birth of the first Olympic Games, which originated in Olympia, southern Greece, in 776BC.