Periods and sports competitions don’t mix, especially when the stress associated with clothing adds to menstrual pain. In some sports – tennis in the lead with the Wimbledon tournament – athletes are forced to wear white, a color that causes anxiety when menstruation arrives. The athletes break the silence today demanding that the damage to the performance of tennis players, soccer players and judokas be taken into account.
Talk about the rules to change them. This is what Alicia Barnett, a British tennis player, recently did, throwing a stone into the puddle by evoking the tradition of white clothing in sport, and for her part, at the Wimbledon tournament.
“During the prequalifiers I had my period and the first few days were very heavy,” he told the AP news agency on July 4, as reported by ‘Sky News‘. “I was a little stressed about it. I think having your stint on tour is hard enough, but wearing white doesn’t help.”
Already last May, the Chinese player, Quinwen Zheng, had begun to lift the taboo of the period in sport, explaining her defeat at Roland-Garros in the round of 16 due to her menstrual cramps, and regretting not having “been able to demonstrate (his) tennis”.
But beyond these pains that no one suspects, there is the fear of seeing the spots caused by the period exposed to everyone’s eyes. Over a white skirt, over shorts or a kimono.
“mind stress”
To limit the impact of this monthly phenomenon on their performance, athletes would like to end the tradition of wearing white.
A symbol of the British bourgeoisie, the “all white dress code” has been de rigueur at Wimbledon since the competition was created in 1877. Rooted in Victorian standards of propriety, the rule became official in 1963.
According to the official Wimbledon website, the dress code states that all players must wear “appropriate tennis clothing that is almost entirely white.” A rule that applies from the moment the players enter the field. Attire must be strictly white, excluding “off-white or cream”.
If a tolerance threshold sometimes authorizes the use of “pastel” shades, the tournament organizers want the backs, shorts, skirts, socks, shoes and caps to remain white. Thus, in 2002, while she had been wearing black shorts, the Russian tennis player Anna Kournikova was asked to go back to her wardrobe and find a white garment.
In response to a tweet that evoked menstruation and how it can affect the results of certain players during sports competitions, the Olympic champion Mónica Puig evoked, at the end of May, “the mental stress of having to wear white at Wimbledon and pray for not having a period during these two weeks.
Definitely something that affects female athletes! Finally bringing it to everyone’s attention! Not to mention the mental stress of having to wear all white at Wimbledon and praying not to have your period during those two weeks. https://t.co/PzyHnPlSJk
— Monica Puig (@MonicaAce93) May 31, 2022
“I think some traditions could be changed,” said Alicia Barnett, who also said she “loves” the “all-white” tradition. A position shared by British footballer Beth Mead. “It’s nice to have an all-white outfit, but sometimes it’s not practical when it’s the time of the month,” she said. in an interview with ‘The Telegraph‘, explaining that the England women’s soccer team passed the comment on to Nike. The team’s players, who are currently competing in the European Championships, have started talks with their kit supplier to change the color of their shorts (now white).
“Because I had my period yesterday”
In addition to tennis and football, there is another sport affected -and this time, whatever the competitions- by the white uniform: judo. On the tatami, it is Clarisse Agbegnenou, five times world champion, who bets against the taboo of rules in sport, even joining the French brand of Réjeanne menstrual panties.
“I did judo with a white kimono, it’s complicated,” he explained. to France Info the judoka, which evolves in the category of less than 63 kg. Many times between training sessions I had to go to the bathroom to change everything (…) all women need it and in sport you have many difficulties”.
Beyond the regulatory outfits and colors, the simple evocation of the rules remains taboo. However, as the Chinese swimmer Fu Yuanhui had dropped in 2016, after her defeat in the Olympic pool in Rio, “the rules annoy all athletes at least once in their lives.”
This is also one of the things that the tennis player Alicia Barnett mentions: “Your body feels looser, your tendons relax, sometimes you feel much more tired and your coordination is more difficult. I feel very depressed and it is difficult to find the motivation to play.
As for Fu Yuanhui, there was a lot of talk about her after she justified her failure in the women’s 4x100m by saying, “It’s because I had my period yesterday.” Simple, effective. In China, where menstruation is taboo even in the way of designating it, the statement caused a stir. In the world of sports, it is one of the main media involved in the gradual lifting of the law of silence around menstruation. “The first day (of the period) is always difficult,” said her tennis partner, Quinwen Zheng, after her failure at Roland-Garros. “I can’t go against my nature. I’d like to be a man on the pitch at times like these.”
In January 2015, British tennis player Heather Watson also associated her poor performance at the Australian Open with “that girl thing”. Before the microphone of BBC Radio, the former British number 1 Annabel Croft had done her own thing, asking for the omertá to be lifted from the menstruation of athletes, which “has always been a taboo”.
Talking about rules and an inappropriate dress code for women is an issue that more and more athletes are trying to raise awareness about. According to an Adidas poll from August 2021one in four girls quits sports as a teenager, mainly for fear of bleeding and staining their clothes.
More recently, a global Puma survey revealed that this affects one in two adolescents.
*Article adapted from its original in French
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