From Corsets to Singlets, the Olympics Have Driven the Evolution of Women’s Sportswear

Nearly 100 years before tennis legend and four-time Olympic gold medalist Serena Williams dared to wear a sleek black catsuit at the French Open, tennis player Suzanne Lenglen caused a stir at Wimbledon in 1919. The French athlete competed in a calf-length, pleated white skirt (which showed her ankles!), a short-sleeved shirt with a low neck for the time, and—gasp—no corset.

According to Jean-Christophe Piffaut, Lenglen biographer and creator of the Tenniseum in Paris, she chose the outfit for performance reasons, since it allowed her to be more agile on the court. Lenglen fought the referees, who were asking her to change to more conventional attire, and she won that event. She went on to earn multiple gold medals at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, corset be damned.

If Lenglen had stepped onto a 1920s tennis court wearing a tight black catsuit, she likely would have been escorted away in handcuffs. At the very least, she would have experienced the 1919 version of “getting canceled.” Thankfully, women’s sports clothing has evolved over the years, with fabrics, shoes and accessories changing as culture shifts and technology advances. There are still strict dress codes in women’s sports, like golf (no plunging necklines, no denim cutoffs) and gymnastics (no bare midriffs or racerback leotards), and we’re only 25 years past the controversy over former Olympic soccer player Brandi Chastain yanking off her jersey in a moment of pure joy in the 1999 Women’s World Cup. (The first sports bras didn’t even come out until the mid-1970s. Professional athletes competing before that invention, like tennis icon Billie Jean King and Olympic track and field medalist Wilma Rudolph, probably would have loved the chance to cause a stir by showing off a supportive bra.)

Female athletes have been pushing to revolutionize sports clothing for decades, and bold style choices have inspired brands to create changes in fabrics, fit and tech. The days of corsets and petticoats on the court are long gone, but there are still advances to be made, and the Games set the stage for the next generation of performance—and style.

With the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris upon us, the question stands: Which athletes will take that chance to make a statement through their clothing, or break out of social or gender norms with a single accessory?

“I am so curious to see what’s going to be worn at this year’s Olympics,” says Kevin Jones, curator at Arizona State University’s FIDM Museum, chronicling more than 400 years of fashion history.

“Each Olympic Games brings something sartorially advanced—sharkskin-surfaced swimsuits, 3D-printed Kevlar helmets—but the innovations are also protected until game day as if they were government-level top secrets! We are going to see some out-of-the ordinary outfits,” he predicts. “The uniformed world of sports will forever be changed with advancements in A.I. technology. What those will be, I have no idea, but the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will probably see many game-changers.”

Jones has a unique perspective when it comes to women’s athletic clothing. He co-curated the traveling exhibition “Sporting Fashion: Outdoor Girls 1800 to 1960,” which includes over 60 fully accessorized outfits ranging from an 1820s archery dress to an 1890s inline skating suit, complete with a little handheld fan, to a 1950s bowling ensemble. The death-defying design of the skates, along with the heavy material of the long brown skirt, would cause most athletes to face-plant within seconds. What Jones hopes people realize when they see these outfits from the past is that the clothes may look prim and ridiculous by our standards, but the fact that women were stepping out of the safety of their homes and daring to compete in such restrictive clothing was actually incredibly bold. They didn’t let a bustle or a bonnet or the lack of moisture-wicking material stop them from trying to break records or win matches.

“I hope the clothing breaks down myths that women were just fainting in corsets, lying on the couch,” says Jones. “These athletes were the modern women of the day.”

Serena Williams wrote the foreword to the exhibition’s catalogue, and Jones says the notion that the women’s outfits were actually an attempt to break down barriers in sports is what caught the tennis star’s attention. “You can see the success of women from 150 years ago still resonating today,” says Jones, who calls Williams’ 2018 catsuit “fierce.” When Williams wore the tight-fitting outfit, the French Tennis Federation president was outraged, but she later said that she chose it for performance reasons—the compression helped with blood circulation issues she’d experienced after childbirth.

The Olympic Charter lays out a specific set of guidelines for athlete clothing, mainly focused on corporate logos and symbols, down to the centimeter. This year’s Paris Olympics will be the first in history to have full gender parity, meaning an equal number of male and female athletes will be competing. The Paris 1900 games were the first to include female athletes, who competed in tennis, sailing, croquet, equestrianism and golf.

Female athletes have fought back against the governing bodies of their sports to protest things like white shorts, which caused “period anxiety,” and hijabs, which will be a closely watched issue at this year’s Olympics. France has banned the head covering in public schools for 20 years, and it is also prohibited by the French Football Federation.

“If athletes want to change [the rules], they have to go through a governing body,” says Susan Sokolowski, an expert on sports product design at the University of Oregon. “The rules come from deep-rooted histories.”

Sokolowski has worked on product design with several major brands, and she stays informed about the most cutting-edge, game-changing innovations in sports clothing so she can bring those innovations back to her students. When asked about some of the most groundbreaking designs, she mentions the “supersuit”—a.k.a. the Nike Swift Suit, worn by Australian track gold medalist Cathy Freeman at the 2000 Sydney Olympics—and Speedo’s 2000 Fastskin swimsuit. The latter technology was so effective that it was banned by the sport’s governing body, World Aquatics, in 2010. It was deemed too advantageous, and thus unfair.

Today, we take fabrics like spandex, nylon and Kevlar for granted, but they’ve revolutionized the way athletes can move, perform and train. Sokolowski says that para-athletes are a “completely untapped space” in clothing innovation. “A product designed for a female athlete in a wheelchair may have been inspired by a male athlete who could walk, and these are design challenges that need to be addressed,” she says.

In April, when Nike unveiled the 2024 women’s track and field uniforms for Team USA, the backlash was swift. One high-cut, red, white and blue unitard, which basically looked like a swimsuit, had athletes like Paralympic runner Jaleen Roberts and Olympic long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall criticizing the design as too skimpy and impractical. Nike confirmed that the unitard was one of many that athletes could choose from, so we’ll probably see female athletes in more performance-friendly options in Paris. And if someone chooses to wear the high-cut option, that’ll be her choice, not a brand’s. A century ago, athletes like Lenglen were fighting for more freedom and less coverage. Today, female athletes fight to wear whatever makes them comfortable.

BREAKING: Here's your first look at the new @Nike kits that will be worn by the U.S. track and field team at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. pic.twitter.com/XPWOnBrwsv

— CITIUS MAG (@CitiusMag) April 11, 2024

Bonnie Morris, a women’s history professor at the University of California, Berkeley, has watched these debates unfold for decades. “Some people allege that uniforms have been designed to exploit sexuality, and others say it’s about maximum flexibility,” she says. “There is always a degree of voyeurism, but athletes seem to be split in their opinions.”

Sue Falsone is a physical therapist, athletic trainer and strength coach who has spent 23 years working to bridge the gap between rehab and performance. The clothing, shoes and accessories worn by athletes play a huge role in the work she does.

“Clothing needs to be freeing so women can do whatever they need to do, but not overly revealing so that women can be comfortable,” she says. “There’s a fine line there. A uniform plays a role in comfort but also performance, and everybody wants to feel comfortable, whether they’re at dinner or performing in the Olympics. Nobody wants to feel like they’re on display.”

When it comes to the Olympics, though, athletes’ bodies are on display. Whether it’s diving, golf or fencing, viewers want to marvel at their strength and agility, and ooh and ahh at the superhuman feats they achieve while sitting on couches eating potato chips and cheering them on. Watching a history-making Olympic gymnast like Simone Biles performing a triple-twisting double-tucked salto backward (a.k.a. a Biles II) while wearing a billowy muumuu and an overcoat is not what sports fans want. It’s also likely not what Biles wants, since that outfit would not allow her to sail into the air and win gold. When women’s gymnastics officially entered the Olympics, at the 1928 games in Amsterdam, competitors wore white headbands plus dark-colored shorts and T-shirts that by today’s standards look like something a casual, slightly rumpled weekend kickball league might wear. Biles and her teammates could probably handle those old-school clothes during competition, but would they be aerodynamic enough? Lightweight enough? Elastic enough? Not a chance.

This summer’s Olympics is about athletic skill and dedication, but there will be moments where fashion and style help female competitors make statements, comment on culture, and announce to the world what they stand for. The clothing will hopefully, as Falsone says, follow the locker room mantra of: When you look good, you play good. You could also add to that: When you’re empowered and respected, and wearing something that feeds into that, anything is possible.

“What happens this year in sport will affect what female athletes wear years from now,” says FIDM’s Jones. “I can’t wait to watch.”

Dina Gachman | | READ MORE

Dina Gachman is a writer based near Austin, Texas. She's the author of SO SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS, a book of essays exploring personal and collective grief.