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Nike is responding to criticism and accusations of sexism over the company's uniforms for Team USA track and field athletes ahead of the 2024 Olympics.
The Olympic Games will take place in Paris this summer and start on July 26th.
Images of the jersey show that an option for women is a high-cut, one-piece uniform. However, the men's gear appears to include longer spandex shorts and a full-coverage tank top.
The outfits quickly garnered reactions from current and former athletes across the sport.
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“Women’s gear should be about performance, both mental and physical. If this outfit truly promoted physical performance, men would wear it,” former U.S. champion runner Lauren Fleshman wrote in a lengthy Instagram post. “This is not elite athletic equipment for track and field. This is a costume born out of patriarchal forces that are no longer welcome or needed to target women’s sports.”
Another former U.S. Olympian, Tara Davis-Woodhall, who is hoping to secure a spot in the 2024 Games for Team USA, commented on a Citius Mag Instagram post saying her “Hoo haa, get out.”
“This mannequin stands still and everything is visible… imagine IN THE MIDDLE of flight,” wrote U.S. Paralympian Jaleen Roberts.
However, Janett Nichol, Nike's vice president of apparel innovation, told CBS that the uniforms were created using technology at the Nike Sports Research Lab in Oregon to help develop garments that would allow athletes to perform optimally .
“On the apparel side, it's critical for us because we're now able to take the athlete insights along with the data and leverage that algorithm to create something that allows us to have a level of specificity and fidelity.” “And a level of accuracy that we've never achieved before,” Nichol told the outlet.
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In an email to Reuters, Nike clarified that U.S. female track and field athletes had the option of wearing the unitard in a short or cropped style, and that the full set for men and women included more than 50 different pieces and 12 different styles, depending on the model includes specific event in which participants participate.
Nike did not immediately respond to the entrepreneur's request for comment.
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