Sports uniforms are usually designed to rev up the excitement among the spectators and the athletes themselves. We can clearly see that with how much sports teams put effort in creating and redesigning their uniforms. Football surely gives us the idea on how pressured they are when it comes to dressing up the players and even the coach. In the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, Canada, however, things are slightly less demanding. Team wear uniforms were made simpler by incorporating not too complicated types of colors, mostly playing only within the primary and secondary colors. And with the minty green and blue colors of this year’s Winter Olympics uniforms, which served as background of the white Olympics Rings, different colors of team uniforms were toned down.
However, more than simply style and color, sports uniforms can affect the efficiency of the athlete, especially in events where speed is the most important aspect. Even Canadian Mps unanimously voted to include seal skin in the Olympic uniforms, possibly thinking it would help with aerodynamics. But obviously, the government is just trying to save a dying industry. Using the Olympic Games for that purpose was a wishful thinking at this time. Let’s hope the Olympic Committee could hold on to keeping the games from being politicized.
Even with the absence of seal skin, athletes can still get aerodynamic uniforms in the different events. Maelle Ricker’s aerodynamic pants helped make her an Olympic champion. It won her and Canada’s snowboard cross team gold medal. Some snowboarders have a different idea about what they should and should not wear. U.S. boarder Nick Baumgartner and Nate Holland both think the pants should be kept with a certain width – baggy pants. But the rules in uniform in snowboarding were not that tight, restricting only speed uniforms and should be two-piece.
Spandex suits are not for snowboarders but for skiers. The kind of materials and design rules of team uniforms also differ in different games, even in ice dancing and figure skating. At the end of the day, it’s still the performance of the athletes that matters not their uniforms.
