CNN – When women first competed in Olympic track and field events in 1928, they wore loose t-shirts and wide shorts, sometimes cinched with a belt.
Those breezy, decidedly non-aerodynamic silhouettes wouldn’t fly today (quite literally) as contemporary female sprinters, hurdlers and long-jumpers don tight performance spandex and high-cut briefs that purport to reduce drag and lessen chafing.
But how high of a cut is too high? That question surfaced — loudly — when Nike revealed its men’s and women’s kits for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games at an event this past April, and one image of two mannequins side by side went viral.
The evolution of the women’s running brief
On the left, the men’s uniform featured a tank and mid-length shorts combination; on the right, a women’s leotard seemed to rise to dangerous heights, with a narrow crotch and the mannequin’s plastic pubic bones visible.
“Professional athletes should be able to compete without dedicating brain space to constant pube vigilance or the mental gymnastics of having every vulnerable piece of your body on display,” former US track and field athlete Lauren Fleshman wrote in response in an Instagram post, citing “patriarchal forces” as the reason for the women’s kit design.
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AFTER EXHAUSTIVE RESEARCH, HEADLINE HEALTH HAS DISCOVERED A SOLUTION FOR THE ‘PROBLEM’ OF FEMALE ATHLETE PUBE VIGILANCE –
