Olympic attire: The bottom line

TOKYO: Female athletes have fought long and hard for the right to choose what they wear when they compete at the Olympics and at the Tokyo Games more and more athletes and fans are speaking out and taking action.

Of the more than 30 women who played badminton this week, including India’s PV Sindhu and Taiwan’s Tai Tzu Ying, about two-thirds wore shorts, while others were clad in skorts, dresses and skirts, and one wore a hijab.

“I’m lucky that we can wear whatever we want,” said Sindhu, the Rio Olympics women’s singles silver medallist who wore one of her blue dresses when she defeated Hong Kong’s Cheung Ngan Yi 21-9, 21-16.

On Sunday, the German women’s gymnastics team wore full-body suits in qualifications, but the Norwegian women’s beach handball team were fined R25 000 last week for wearing shorts rather than bikini bottoms.