‘Are you joking?’ Outraged Paralympian says official called her uniform too revealing
Paralympic world champion Olivia Breen was in disbelief when, she said, an official informed her that her “sprint briefs were too short and inappropriate” after competing in long jump Sunday at the English Championships.
The thing is, Breen has been wearing the same sort of attire for most of her career.
The 24-year-old athlete, who has cerebral palsy, took to Twitter in order to express her dismay in a statement.
“This official came up to me and said to me: ‘Can I speak to you?’” Breen said in an interview with ESPN. “And she just said ‘I think your briefs are too revealing. I think you should consider buying some shorts.’ I was just... I am very expressive and I didn’t know what to say. So my response was: ‘Are you joking?’
Breen said was blindsided by the comment and felt disgusted.
“This is so wrong. We’re not living in the 18th century. Life has moved on. As an athlete, personally, I have never experienced that before.,” Breen said.
Breen is gearing up to compete at the Paralympics in Tokyo in August and wore official Adidas briefs during Sunday’s championship in Bedford, according to The Guardian.
“When you are competing, you want to feel as light as possible to make you perform better,” Breen said to CNN. “We are entitled to wear what we are given and what we can wear.”
Clothing attire worn by female athletes — and those who criticize them — has been making the rounds as the world awaits the start of Tokyo Olympics. At the European Beach Handball Championship on Sunday, the Norwegian women’s beach handball team was fined by the European Handball Federation for opting to wear boy shorts instead of the required bikini bottoms, McClatchy News reported.
In a tweet that has gone viral, an observer said the uniforms made the athletes “feel unnecessarily sexualized.”
During the Rio Olympics in 2016, NBC News did a photo series that explored “sexploitation” in the athletes competing, bringing attention to the differences in how male and female athletes dress.
“The Olympics represent a global standard. For men, for women, for athletics,” said androgynous model Rain Dove to NBC. “It’s not a village of athletes, it’s a village of people still defined by their genitalia.”
“Women’s athletic wear is usually tight-fitting [and] shows off those nice curves. It’s a lot of skin exposure. But men’s wear is a lot looser,” Dove said.
On the other end, there are women who don’t believe the attire to be exploitive.
Beach volleyball player Holly McPeak told NBC then that a sports bikini is “the most comfortable thing to move, run and dive in the sand.”
“What do you wear when you go to the beach? You wear a bathing suit,” McPeak said. “The ones we compete in are more supportive, more comfortable, [and] less revealing than a lot of the bathing suits you’re going to see at the beach.”
Some, including Breen, said the standard for men appears to be different. For example, the men’s uniform in the International Handball Federation beach handball document “consists of a tank top and shorts.”
“It made me question whether a male competitor would be similarly criticised,” Breen said in her statement. “I hope no other female athletes had similar issues.”
A spokesperson for England Athletics said that they are investigating the matter involving Breen, according to The Guardian. “The well-being of all participants in athletics is of the utmost importance and everyone should feel comfortable to compete and participate in the sport.”
This story was originally published July 20, 2021 at 1:07 PM with the headline "‘Are you joking?’ Outraged Paralympian says official called her uniform too revealing."