An Olympic medalist who refused to compete in bikini bottoms says skimpy outfits are putting women off athletics

• Pole vaulter Holly Bradshaw refused to wear a crop top and bikini shorts at the Tokyo Games.
• She told Sky News she felt "terror" when presented with a skimpy outfit.

An Olympic pole vault medalist has said that the skimpy outfits worn by elite female athletes are discouraging many women from competing in the sport.

Britain's Holly Bradshaw won bronze in Tokyo wearing a custom one-piece uniform, having chosen not to wear the crop top and bikini bottoms used by the majority of female athletes.

Bradshaw said she doesn't wear such an outfit as doing so makes her uncomfortable, telling Sky News this week that she felt "terror" when she was presented with her Olympic kit options before the games.

"It was crop top, knickers, shorts, a bikini onesie and I just [felt] … terror … I can't wear this, there is no way I can go to an Olympic Games and feel comfortable wearing any of this," she said.

Bradshaw said she had never felt comfortable wearing skimpier athletic clothing. She said that prior to Tokyo she had done so many times but was subjected to cruel online comments because she had "puppy fat" early in her career.

"I would see people on TV wearing a crop top and shorts and well that's the outfit you wear when you do athletics," she told Sky News.

"I got criticized massively on social media for having puppy fat - I looked unathletic - someone actually said 'How fit is Holly Bradshaw? #SaidNoOneEver."

While she has found a way to wear a uniform in which she feels happy, Bradshaw believes that many amateur and professional female athletes are uncomfortable in clothing which that shows so much of their bodies.

She told Sky News that since the Tokyo Games, she has been contacted by many women who have told her that the prospect of competing in public in what is effectively a bikini was frightening.

"Young female athletes who said to me 'I have dropped out of athletics because I saw people wearing crop tops and knickers and I didn't want to'… that to me is heartbreaking," she said.

"I dread to think how many women are out there and feel uncomfortable with what they wear but they just have no options and some people don't feel comfortable speaking out."

Female athletes are taking control of their uniforms

Bradshaw is the latest in a growing line of female athletes going public with their complaints about being pushed to wear skimpy uniforms to compete.

At Tokyo 2020, the German women's gymnastics team wore full-body unitards instead of the customary bikini-cut leotards as a stand against sexualization in the sport.

"To do splits and jumps, sometimes the leotards are not covering everything, sometimes they slip and that's why we invented a new form of leotard so that everyone feels safe around competitions and training," the gymnast Sarah Voss said.

Prior to the Olympics, the Norwegian women's beach handball team were fined for refusing to wear bikini bottoms to compete.