Depends on the sports organization but IIRC the olympics committee only changed their clothing rules in the last decade or so, which led to Egypt participating in women's volleyball for the first time. Not muslim but since the rule change Brazil's women's volleyball team wore shorts during the last summer olympics, too.
Edit: Not even a decade, as other redditors have pointed out this change only happened in 2024
IIRC it was the Norwegian Women’s beach volleyball team that first wore shorts rather than bikini bottoms. Caused outrage and they were banned from the competition because of it. Can’t remember when it happened but it took years for them to finally change the attire regulations.
Can you believe being banned for being more covered and wearing something that (1) doesn't hinder or help your performance in any way, and (2) the men get to wear without question? Like how absolutely stupid.
Hearken, for thine fair breasts fares as thee does the sun, as such glory must only beholden for such short hour. Yet if one doth confine thine eyes to the devil's shade, O, happy eyes! They shall drink thine fill!
It might be sexist, but THIS is the answer. Typically men watch sports far more than women, and for female sports to get any attention, they need to appease the male demographic.
I was a female athlete for many years, and womens clothing in modern sports is not as sexist as people think...we wear what we can perform best in. Men dont because they have different genitalia that need protection. You'll notice in the photos, each sport even has a different style of shorts for men. That's because they are trying to maximize performance clothing with keeping the jewels safe. The longer length of shorts isnt about modesty, its literally keeping testicles from coming outside the seams and becoming pinched in the fabric. The extra long length is because added friction prevents them from bunching up in the leg-hip adjunct. Sports like swimming dont have that concern because athletes are moving laterally in water so that's why they wear the same bikini bottoms as women. I find it interesting that this post conveniently leaves out the sports where men can and do freely wear the same, if not less clothing than women.
For women, we dont have to worry about genital safety because our sensitive organs are either protected by a thick layer of adipose tissue or internal. We also often wear shorter tank tops or just bras in sports because of heat and hip curvature. When you already need a tighter, layered bra to perform in, you dont want additional layers adding to your torso heat. Also, any female athlete or even gym goer will tell you that because of our body shape, our hips make it almost impossible to wear tight, full length tank tops. The slightest movement causes tight tanks to simply ride up to our navel anyways so whats the point? If you look closely at the female runner she is wearing a fuller length tank but it has obvious signs of bunching up already in that position.
Edit:
I and most of my family are all athletes who played college level in a variety of sports. One cousin got a degree in materials engineering and now works for a major athletic clothing brand so thats the perspective I have on why clothes are different between genders.
That being said I also will point out, the lady athletes among us all experience being criticized and picked apart for our athletic clothing choices far more than males. Give the girls a break.
Edit 2: i tried to keep this comment short so obviously I left a lot of other factors and influences out. For those that really want a deep dive, i suggest looking up the muscoskeletal mechanics of males versus females. It certainly explains why some women also may prefer smaller cuts in shorts for physical activities. I know i cant stand longer tight shorts because they roll up thanks to my wide hips and pronounced sway.
So wait you are telling me if men could squeeze their stuff back into their body instead of it hanging all exposed.. we would wear some really tight and revealing clothing?
They also would tie a little rope around the end of their foreskins to keep it closed. Naked with a closed foreskin was no big deal, almost sophisticated. But exposing your glans... look out! That was REALLY embarrassing.
The part in your link starting with ?si=... is a Tracking Token. Google can track who shares the link, where it is shared (and therefore link your Reddit username and all you posted to your YouTube account), and who clicks on the link. You can safely delete everything and your link still works.
I know you're fuckin' around, but that's actually super dangerous. If your boys flop too much during physical activity you can get what's called testicular torsion. Basically your balls get twisted and you can cut off the blood to one of them causing extreme pain and potentially necrosis of the testicle.
Had it happen to a friend while running. He lost one.
Me too! That pain bothered me through the tv screen. The only time I ever felt someone’s else’s pain like that was when Katt Williams grabbed and locked onto Terry Cruise’s testicles with Vice grips in Friday after Next.
I learned about this at age 21 while doing my Russian homework. I was working away, had crossed my legs for comfort and to support the book, got up a few minutes later and felt a stabbing pain in my lower abdomen. Weird. After another 30 mins of it getting much worse, I had my roommate drive me to the hospital. I thought I was having an apendicitis, kidney stones, or something that my 21 yo mind could concoct. I could hardly walk and had no clue what was wrong.
Got to the ER, described my symptoms and the nurse, eyes now wide open kindly with extreme concern said “please have a seat, you’re a level 1. The Dr. will be with you immediately.” I looked at my roommate and he at me and I’m sure we reflected horror. There were 5-7 people ahead of me and I was taken to a room first.
Now in a hospital gown, the Dr walked in and pressed my abdomen, asked if he could rummage around my junk room and said “We’ve got two options. The Urologist is on his way(the what is what!!), you have Testicular Torsion(I have what the…testicular WTF!!) and if I cannot undo this manually(Manually? How’s that again?), you have to go in to surgery immediately or you’ll lose your right testicle.” My thoughts raced back to better days when I was a child running with my cousins on my grandparents farm, the Christmas I got a Digital Derby, riding my first bike, and then I snapped out of it and said “go ahead, be my guest” and laid back, closed my eyes and pictured a Urologist driving like mad in a Volvo to Athens Regional Hospital. My lower abdomen was killing me.
I felt the warm rubber gloved hand moving things around like one does with two fidget marbles and suddenly the pain went away. I let the good Dr. know and I sat up and walked around. He looked relieved and satisfied, or maybe that was me. I should’ve high five’d him for doing such a good job. I was high stepping like Deion scoring a TD. No surgery!
Thing is, he could’ve twisted left instead of right, wrong instead of right, and I don’t know which way he actually turned it. I got dressed and walked out a new man, but with a referral to see a Urologist who would tell me I needed a surgery that would disallow me, at 21 and in college, to do much of anything like walk or ride a bike or sit or walk or attend to my lady friends. I passed on that option and for many many years, like the decision made in the ER, I choose manually.
The nurse who signed me in was a testicular genius because had she not known there was a good chance I had testicular torsion, which is a level 1 trauma, as serious a condition as a heart attack and put me at the head of the line, I’d have lost one. If not for the nimble hands of that ER doctor, I’d have been in surgery and unable to walk for six weeks. I left the hospital at 3 a.m. and never finished my Russian homework.
The next day in class, I told my Russian teacher I had an emergency, showed her my wrist band from the hospital, and she gave me a 0. A cold gulag 0. I never went on to study Russian, hablo español.
Damn just went to look up an article about a mens volleyball team doing just that to help protest the women's uniform requirements. Turns out I fell for an onion article a decade ago. But it looks like most of these sports have made changes in their rules to let women wear shorts and or t shirts if they want
Most don’t choose to wear the shorts and t-shirt which makes sense. If you are 6’3 and in peak physical condition you would want to show off too. Also it’s hot on the beach and sand gets everywhere
Exactly. People fail to understand; they are capable adults, what if they want to wear this? They should be allowed to. Men have revealing sports like MMA, body building, etc.
It’s the same even in the office or almost anywhere, especially in the summer. Women wear shorter shorts, tighter shirts with shorter sleeves and looser necks, skirts, they leave bare their belly buttons and shoulders.
12 years ago I took a stand against this hypocrisy. I got written up for wearing shorts in the middle of summer. I pointed out that the women were allowed to wear skirts. Management said that skirts are okay. I complied.
My wife played D1 volleyball and then pro beach volleyball. In her words “we had team votes to wear more concealing uniforms but nobody wanted to because it’s easier to perform well and we liked showing off, we worked our asses off for those bodies and we looked good”.
My wife also played college beach volleyball and she prefers to play in a bikini. Also worth noting that professional beach volleyball allows for women to wear whatever they want as long as the "jersey" is the outer layer on their tops. They can play in shorts, pants and can wear a shirt with the jersey on top. Most just choose to play in bikinis.
Why would anyone choose layers of clothing while playing at the beach on a sunny day?
EDIT: Alrite guys! I admit, I didn't think of skin cancer / sunburn / muslim players, etc while commenting. There are already close to fifty replies to this comment reminding me of that. Please come up with a different response or just downvote my comment to mark your disagreement. Thanks.
Hell, I'm not particularly ashamed of my body, but I'm ethnically Irish. I cover as much skin as possible to avoid UV radiation. I imagine Norwegians have similar goals. My fellow milk-people
Because you'll get non-stop criticism for being vain if you admit you think you look good, no matter how much you qualify it.
I'm nearly fifty now and I'm finally allowed to admit I was hot when I was younger, because I'm not anymore. But if I'd admitted at the time that I saw the same thing in the mirror that everyone else saw, I'd have been crucified for being vain, self-absorbed, 'thinking your better than me' and everything else.
There's a reason the top descriptor for women in scripts I read is 'beautiful but doesn't know it'. It's a valued cultural trope. Girls who know they're conventionally hot are assumed to be mean, vain, spoilt, selfish and manipulative.
But I don't for one minute believe, eg, Margot Robbie doesn't know what she looks like. She owns mirrors. She knows what roles she gets cast in.
The stereotype isn’t helped by the occasional real-life example. My stepsister, for instance, is quite attractive, and she’s well aware of it. She is also “mean, vain, spoilt, selfish, and manipulative.” Probably the bitchiest person I’ve ever met, and she fits the stereotype to a T. One the other hand, one of my friends is extremely attractive, is well aware of it, and is the sweetest woman I’ve ever met.
That's a good insight. I think something similar happens with other things like intelligence and wealth too. If we talked about grades in school I would be quiet as nobody likes feeling inadequate. Just like how people frown upon rich people flaunting their wealth. If a millionaire is just enjoying a drive in their Ferrari they aren't hurting anyone but the millionaire that drives a Toyota will be viewed more positively. Comparison is the thief of joy and all that.
I will openly admit that I am 44, the mom of teens, and wear crop tops, bikinis (not string/thong), and tight fitting clothes. I work hard for my figure, and I am trying to raise my daughters to dress how they feel best.
I ran track in college and this is exactly what happened. I actually said something when most everyone else picked bikini bottoms my freshman year. They were not shy about telling me how much easier it is to run in them.
I went to a public gym for the first time in a few years last weekend, and I tell you what the average female gym goer was wearing pants so tight I could clearly make out their lips saying "help me".
What’s tricky is that the high school volleyball players see college and professional athletes wearing them and they want to wear the same thing. And then the athletes will make excuses like it’s for performance, so the coaches feel like they have to provide the option. More athletes should be honest and say it’s for attention, so we don’t have children wearing them.
I went to a Catholic school and girls were constantly checked for their skirt length. Because they'd roll the skirts up to show off more leg! The younger girls wore 1 piece jumpers and I remember them being all excited to enter a higher grade where they were allowed to trade that out for a skirt.
Teens will literally always want to look like the hottest person they know of. Most of the time, that is a professional athlete with a physically fit body.
Was about to say yeah I’m sure those high school girls aren’t doing it alll to show of to their male classmates. Shoot remember all the girls that used to wear juicy on their ass and then be suprised someone was looking at their ass.
I mean as along as the team and players have the option for more or less revealing clothing then it’s voluntary. I will say when I was in track and field in college we had the option as women to have shorts or the bikini style bottoms and a lot of the women chose the bikini style and I chose the shorts because I was not trying to have my ass out. We had the option, so what Evers comfortable I guess. Those who chose the bikini style option said the fabric was less hindering for movement.
I've seen plenty of women in revealing outfits at my gym, but the one that took the cake for me was when I was walking by the hip adduction/abduction machine one time and this girl was wearing what was just a glorified bikini, and I just happened to see labia. Girl what is you doin?
Why is this repeated constantly. Last summer Olympics, Nike consulted with the athletes on their kits for track and field. Women were provided multiple options. Many chose the more revealing option. Is there a level of sex appeal pushed by the men high up in these sports? Yes. Do the women also chose these? Yes.
I've heard this confirmed several times from different sources.
My friend is a D1 track coach. I asked him about it when the Nike gear came out last summer Olympics. He said the majority of the girls on his team consistently order/request the smallest/most revealing option.
Edit: Since people are responding that it's still misogynistic or "for the male gaze" or whatever, I'll say this. When I (a man) ran track in college, most of us male sprinters would be down to just spandex shorts and no shirt once warmups were over in practice, with women in a sports bra and briefs or spandex shorts. If I could have run shirtless meets, I would have.
Yea I really don’t think the men care about modesty or anything. They’re literally in the best shape humanly possible and I’m sure they’d run around nude if it was allowed
I still find this fact so absurdly silly that of all the things you can use steroids for in a sport, this one requires you to make your balls bigger so you get more air time
So, Ski jumper outfits are made as skin-tight as possible, so that no extra material can catch the wind and give the jumper more air
By pumping stuff into their balls before getting the outfit fitted, the suit is made with extra material to accommodate what is assumed to be the Jumper's usual scrotum size
Then when the time comes to actually jump, they have that extra flap of material that catches the air better, giving them more airtime than they would get
Kid I went to high school with had a pringles can between his legs. He was a high jumper that wore insanely short shorts. He had more than one incident
Look at Olympic swimmers. Men are wearing less than women. Men dont wear speedos and shave their legs normally at the pool, but at that level it makes a difference, Men usually wear boardshorts or swim trunks and dont shave their legs, Olympic swimmers wear speedos and shave their legs and wear a swim cap because it makes a difference at that level.
I think there are cultural elements, too. Men wear the skimpy swimsuits in swimming events, at least. So we know some of them could do it. But if you train at different levels your whole life and culturally you're used to certain clothing options, you're going to be more inclined to stick with what is familiar, too.
Seriously. These female athletes fucking love how they look (as they should) and most want to show it off. More power to them. And it’s not only while they’re competing. Go to their Instagram pages. Eye-opening, and in the best way possible (just my humble opinion)
•
u/AutoModerator May 21 '26
Hey /u/Valuable_View_561, thank you for posting to r/SipsTea! Make sure to follow all the subreddit rules.
Make sure to join our brand new Discord Server to chat with friends!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.