Sports Special Edition: Sports and “Wardrobe Malfunctions”
During full contact sports, due to the heavy contact used, sometimes it so happens that a wardrobe malfunction takes place. With athletes crashing into each other and yanking on clothing to try and get the ball away from an opponent, sometimes they can yank an item of clothing too hard and then a wardrobe malfunction happens. This is a big problem in women’s sports because women always try to maintain a serious attitude in their sports, and when something like a wardrobe malfunction takes place, it gives them the wrong kind of attention. Female athletes are always trying to be taken seriously and try not to get attention for the way they look or the outfits they wear or for the few times their outfits fail them. There is no end of wardrobe malfunctions in sports, and they will continue to feature all over the media for many years to come.
A wardrobe malfunction is a very embarrassing thing for anyone that it happens to. It is can be quite upsetting at any stage of the play and at any time. When it happens in sports it is even more so because of the huge number of people watching. Imagine a clothing mishap that millions of people are watching on live television; it takes away from the sporting glory, from the seriousness of the occasion and just ruins the whole mood. One of the first instances of a wardrobe malfunction took place in ancient Greece, when a widow accompanied her son to a fight he was taking part in. As women were not allowed in the arenas, she wore a disguise to blend in. After her son won the contest she started to jump with joy and her disguise fell apart and she was found out to be a woman and arrested. There have been numerous instances of wardrobe malfunctions in sports over the years, and even though outfits these days are built for comfort and protection, they can sometimes still fail an athlete.
In full contact sports like American football, football and rugby there is always a lot of pulling and tugging going on the pitch. This can sometimes lead to jerseys pulled off and shorts pulled down. The problem does not seem to be a big embarrassment for men, as it is for women. Men just pull up their shorts or yank on a new jersey and they are good to go again. For women the embarrassment can last a long time and the effects to their mental state can be devastating. When a clothing malfunction occurs in a full contact sport it is a different story but when it occurs in an event such as the Olympic Games it can be very devastating. An incident took place during the World Bobsled Championships in Sweden, when Gillian Cooke split open the back of her spandex tracksuit right before the race. She did not seem to care though, and like a true professional she managed to continue the race and her team grabbed seventh place overall.
Another sad incident took place in 2009, when Olympic swimmer Flavia Zoccari had an unfortunate outfit failure. Just as she was preparing to set off for the 200 metres race during the Mediterranean Games in Italy, her swimsuit ripped open from the back. The organisers were very harsh with the swimmer and disqualified her from the race, and it ruined her chances for the event. They could have allowed her to change and continue the race but instead she was disqualified, with her outfit split was plastered all over the newspapers of the world.
It gets very embarrassing when these types of things happen but at the end of the day outfit failures are inevitable in sports. Athletes, especially female ones, should just not pay much attention to any such mishap and continue with the game. It usually happens that an athlete becomes known more for the malfunction and less for their sport. This sort of attitude needs to be changed, and fans need to start focusing less wardrobe malfunctions in the media and more on play instead.
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