Jessica Halloran: The sports bra is not offensive, distracting or indecent

The latest sports bra controversy embodies a tiresome set of double standards for women in sport. The practical garment should been seen as neither distracting nor indecent writes Jessica Halloran.

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Women on a US College cross-country team were banned from running in their sports bras just last week. They were “distracting to the footballer players” at practice.

A couple of months ago tennis player Alize Cornet was given a code violation when she realised her top was on backwards and exposed her sports bra in the process of righting it on court.

You know it really is time to “free the sports bra”.

These practical garments shouldn’t be deemed offensive or indecent when sighted. It’s time for sports officials to loosen up about the crop tops being seen on the sporting arena.

There was outrage after Alize Cornet was penalised for taking her shirt off.

As tennis great Billie Jean King said earlier this year: “the policing of women’s bodies must end”. Which is really what this is all about.

The sports bra controversy at Rowan’s College embodied a tiresome set of double standards women in sport have had to endure — forever.

Men can train in the bare minimum without an eyebrow raised. Women can’t. Men can strip down to their naked torso and change shirts on court during a tennis match. Women can’t. If they do, it could be deemed “unsportsmanlike conduct” like it was in Cornet’s case. Ridiculous.

Last week student Gina Capone wrote an article for The Odyssey Online, which broke the news of Rowan University’s ban on female athletes wearing sports bras without a shirt and ripped them for it.

Trailblazer Billie Jean King (left) has joined the fight. Picture: Getty Images

“If you’re running in a sports bra, then you must be asking for it, right?” Capone wrote. “Well, according to a football player at Rowan University, this is true. I’ll have you know the real reason women run in sports bras, and it’s not to show off our hard-earned abs. Women, whether they have a six-pack or not, run in sports bras because, quite frankly, it’s hot outside.”

The ban was flipped after Capone’s article went viral.

Another constant and recent target of the body cops has been 23-time grand slam champion Serena Williams. Take the controversial “catsuit” she wore at the French Open a few months ago.

Williams played in the Nike compression garment that is designed to prevent blood clots, a condition that nearly killed her during child birth last year.

Serena Williams rocks her ‘catsuit’ at the French Open. Picture: AFP

Yet, despite the practicality of the garment, French tennis officials took offence at the skin-tight number and banned it. French Tennis Federation president Bernard Giudicelli announced the new dress code at Roland-Garros, stating that William’s outfit went “too far” and players “must respect the game and the place”.

Ah, respect. Wouldn’t that be nice when it comes to things that really matter in women’s sport?

Like suitable shoes to perform in. It also emerged this week that the Australian women’s cricketers do not have cricket shoes. No one makes them for females. No one.

This is despite women making up 30 per cent of Australian cricket’s participation numbers.

And yes, women’s feet are different to men’s. Females have different lower-limb biomechanics and gait, yet major sports brands are still trying to figure out if it is worth providing to the hundreds of thousands of women that play.

Elite cricketers like Alyssa Healy have to wear men’s boots. Picture: Getty Images

There is hope for female footballers — XBlades launched its first AFL football boot for women earlier this year.

Thankfully Ida Sports has seen the gap in the women’s high-performance shoe market too. The start-up company is currently designing the “best high-performance football boot” for women. A prototype has been developed, it’s lightweight and made from kangaroo leather and is being tested by 750 athletes.

“The goal is to make the best female football boot on the planet, and then everyone will want to buy it,” co-founder of Ida Sports Laura Youngson said.

Youngson was inspired to design a female specific boot after she was sick of having to wear ill-fitting kids’ shoes to play soccer in. Shoes that left her with bruised toes and not mention were “terribly uncool”. Youngson said her team have been doing some “wild” research.

But there is a specifically designed boot on the way for footballers. Picture: Getty Images

“I know it’s crazy, we are talking and listening to women,” Youngson said. “We asked women what they wanted in a football boot.”

They hope to have a shoe ready for release by April 2019. That’s progress.

But there’s been little progress made on the sports bra front. It was in 1999 that US soccer star Brandi Chastain scored a winning goal in the women’s World Cup final, and tore off her shirt.

Photographs of an elated Chastain kneeling on the pitch in her black sports bra became an iconic image. Chastain of course had her critics. Her celebration was too distracting and disrespectful. Even though countless men had ripped off their tops in celebration before her.

Twenty years on surely it’s time for people to no longer see this small, practical piece of fabric as offensive, distracting or indecent. Free the sports bra.

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Originally published as Jessica Halloran: The sports bra is not offensive, distracting or indecent