The ambiguity around this could be resolved with just changing the rule to something like a shirt/upper body covering which goes over the shoulders, and no nips exposed. Would cover a sports bar for women, men could unzip the front as long as their full chest isn’t exposed uncovered.
I would also support a rule that your butt has to be covered too (well after the swim, so a new athlete could use a swimsuit during the swim if desired).. They may be popular with the male dominant crowd of slowtwitch, but the swimsuits of sara perez sala or old Holly Lawrence expose quite a lot, and don’t help the professionalism to the public goal. Not to mention those suits are aerodynamically terrible anyways.
Each sport has their specific functional attire, designed depending on the needs of the particular sport. I can’t understand why anybody would think that it looks ‘unprofessional’ to wear the appropriate attire for the sport you’re doing. I have never heard anybody argue that a swimmer looks insufficiently professional because he wears briefs or that a beach volleyball player looks insufficiently professional because she wears a bikini. (The controversy about the maximum coverage rules for female beach volleyball players is a different issue.) So why would anybody think that triathletes wearing a tri-suit don’t look sufficiently ‘professional’?
Makes sense to look great while covered in piss, puking on the ground. But seriously, it’s got to be the Italians and their proud chest hair, not Americanos.
Notice how they all look consistent. Same as athletes that play in any sport there is a relative consistency across their game attire. It’s not a matter of being offended by skin or any outfit it’s about having a consistent image that represents the sport. Are there variations sure, does it help to have consistency yes. When I played in college it was a technical foul to have your shirt untucked and pretty sure NBA players get fined for it still. NFL players get fined for having socks that are too long, heck even cycling has a ref who measures sock height.
Here is a racing company called T100 that probably has the same rules as Ironman about nipples and professionalism but here is there YouTube photo they use to promote
But at the same time I get the push for some kind of “decency” standard. Maybe it’s just me, but I find it super annoying when someone rocks up to a local running race with no shirt on. I could also see that wouldn’t go over too well to a community already unhappy with road closures and selfish triathletes leading into a race, to see a bunch of shirtless and otherwise scantily clad athletes running around.
There’s places that wouldn’t care (Oceanside for example), and places that might take more offense (St George before the event ended, middle east). But we need uniform rules across the board and for races it makes sense to mitigate risk of backlash. So to that end, let’s settle on some basic rules, like have some kind of upper body covering over the shoulder and nips, cover your groin area, and otherwise let athletes do as they will..
I’m not saying anything radical, just clarify the current standard and make it fair between men and women. These ticky tack zipper penalties are ridiculous. Someone didn’t win the race because they ran with their top unzipped on in a sports bra instead of a tri suit. Just set uniform rules for races that don’t offend maybe more conservative venues (so there’s no ambiguity between locations), and be done with it.
The other half of this is enforcement. Have a rule about attire, or don’t. But whatever rule we have needs to be clear and needs to be enforced, otherwise why bother having the rule. Don’t have a rule, DQ a big pro, and then undo the DQ when the head ref realizes its a dumb rule.
That was my point I should’ve made more clear- make the rule easier to understand and follow, don’t make it silly with the zipper at certain lengths or required it be done somewhere and not somewhere else. Then you can enforce consistently
I would argue that the consistent image that represents triathlon is innovation and individuality, not uniformity. The tradition of triathlon is that we choose our gear according to what is practical and suits our personal needs and preferences, and not according to what some bureaucrats in Lausanne consider appropriately fashionable. Whether that’s Faris Al-Sultan in his speedos, Sara Pérez Sala’s ‘swimsuit’, or the latests sleeved speedsuit with aerodynamic calf guards. It is also why we’ve still got bikes like the Cadex Tri bike whereas Jan Ullrich’s Pinarello Parigina got banned by the UCI for not looking enough like a traditional diamond frame road bike.
To you sure, to a sport enthusiast considering getting into or spectating a sport nope. Hate it as much as you want but people visually like consistency. A sport that wants to be mainstream has to have some of that consistency, Ironman and ITU fall into that bucket. There aren’t many sports that don’t go through that progression. They start off with a rebel/renegade appearance and mindset then they go mainstream and things like uniforms and attire become standardized. At this point IM is well into their mainstream phase so if you want that rebel feel you will need to go to something like Xtri, maybe Xterra or indi races maybe like Wildflower. But IM is about as mainstream as you can get so no surprise they have a dress code.
But seriously, it’s got to be the Italians and their proud chest hair, not Americanos.
