Paralympian Speaks Out After She Was Chastised For Her Competition Outfit
Olivia Breen, a paralympic athlete with cerebral palsy, is a two-time world champion in the T38 long jump and will compete in the Tokyo Paralympic Games later this month.
Olympians are world-class athletes who strive persistently to achieve tremendous success. They train for hours on end, paying close attention to their form and speed. Their appearance should be the last thing on their minds.
Recently, Olivia took to social media to say that a female official told her that her shorts were too inappropriate after she finished her long jump at the English Championships.
Instead of being able to rejoice in her accomplishments, Olivia was discouraged by this woman’s presumably sexist remark.
Instagram; pictured above is Olivia
The 24-year-old, who won a world championship gold medal in the T35-38 4x100m relay in 2015 and a world championship gold medal in the T38 long jump in 2017, said the event happened after she competed in the long jump in Bedford.
Olivia was clothed in the same competition briefs she’d been wearing for numerous years, and up until this point, an official had never remarked on what she wore.
In a message she shared on Twitter, Olivia began by thanking all of the volunteers at athletic events, before getting into what happened to her.
“…Tonight I feel quite disappointed because just as I finished my long jump competition at the English Championships, one of the female officials felt it necessary to inform me that my sprint briefs were too short and inappropriate.
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“I was left speechless,” Olivia continued, before pointing out that nobody had said anything like that to her over the course of the past few years.
“I have been wearing the same style sprint briefs for many years and they are specifically designed for competing in.”
She then said she will be wearing the exact same briefs when she does compete in Tokyo soon, before wondering if a male competitor would have faced similar criticism from this official.
Oliva acknowledged that there does need to be rules, but she thinks that “women should not be made to feel self-conscious about what they are wearing when competing.”
Twitter; pictured above is what Olivia had to say about being chastised for her competition outfit
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