German Gymnasts Debut Olympic Unitards After Taking a Stand Against Sexualization in the Sport

Team Germany’s gymnastics team is proudly representing their country in full-length unitards.

The professional athletes practiced in the new uniforms on Thursday, July 22, with Elisabeth SeitzKim BuiPauline Schaefer and Sarah Voss giving the public the first look at their fuschia and black unitards for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“We mastered our podium training well,” she wrote in an Instagram post, which was translated from German. “Tomorrow we will rest, properly train the day after tomorrow and on Sunday the competition will finally get serious.”

Pauline shared the same photo of the team, writing in German, “How do you like our new outfits?” while Kim captioned her post, “Nice arena, good podiumtraining, beautiful unitards, and a lot of joy.”

In her own behind-the-scenes photos, Sarah, who was one of the first team members to wear unitards at competitions, posed with Brazil’s gymnasts in front of the Olympic rings.

Though leotards are traditionally worn in the gymnastics world, the German Gymnastics Federation (DTB) said in April, according to the BBC, that three of their competitors chose to wear full-length uniforms in protest of the “sexualisation in gymnastics.”

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