Leotard-mania

Patriotism. Sparkles. Matching eyeshadow. A gymnastics leotard recap.

I few weeks ago, I wrote about the way feminity is performed in women’s artistic gymnastics. This time, we’re keeping it simple: let’s look at some leotards!

I did gymnastics very, very briefly as a kid. I think I was only into it for the chance to wear a leotard, and then quickly dropped out as I realized I didn’t like doing of any the actual gymnastics. It’s much more fun to watch from afar. Anyway, we’re about mid-way through the gymnastics portion of the Paris Olympics with the team and all-around competitions done and apparatus finals scheduled for this weekend. Which gives us plenty of leotards to examine.¹

USA

I may be biased as I am American and thus overexposed to them, but I have to say I find our national symbols tacky. I’m sorry, but stars and stripes are always gonna look a little childish, IMO. But then the women’s gymnastics team comes to the Olympics and it’s hard not to go full MURICA!!!

Anyway, the US has a particularly strong lineup of gymnasts this year but the leotards were not my particular favorites; I actually love the fireworks one they wore for podium training for being a little different, but they tend to like the more clearly patriotic ones for the finals. We seem to be in an era of MORE is MORE in US gymnastics leotards — more sparkle! More ombre! More cut-outs! And we haven’t even gotten to event finals yet, where we’ll see Jordan Chiles, Simone Biles, Jade Carey, and Suni Lee all likely pick up a few more medals. And wear even more sparkles.

Brazil

Allegedly, Brazil’s leotards are all designed by Jade Barbosa, the veteran gymnast who won her first Worlds medal in 2007. Her Olympic teammate Júlia Soares was just two years old at the time. She did her floor choreography in Paris to Britney Spears’ music because she is a true millennial.

Anyway, Jade and Brazil are not afraid of color and bling. I love the yellow that Rebeca Andrade and Flávia Saraiva wore for the all-around final, where Rebeca won silver. And especially that they both went for yellow eyeshadow for the look, too. I personally prefer the peacock-like one they wore for qualifications to the team final one, but they seem to like the high-neck, stately look for finals, as they wore a similar style to Worlds last year.

A special shout out to Flávia, who kneed herself in the face after falling off the bars in warm up for the team final, still killed it, and helped Brazil win a historic bronze medal — their first gymnastics Olympic team medal ever. Rebeca and Júlia will both be in a few more event finals this weekend, can’t wait to see what else Jade has cooked up for them.

France

Oh France. France, France, France. Sadly, the team crashed out during qualifications and did not qualify for any finals, despite being a team medal contender after winning bronze at the World Championships last fall. That means we won’t see any more of their star gymnast these games, Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos, who was considered an outside threat for the all-around. And we also won’t see any more of their leotards, which were surprisingly minimal for being a home Olympics. I actually do like the simple white one here they wore for qualifications. It will have to suffice for France for now.

Algeria

Algeria’s sole gymnast at these games is Kaylia Nemour, and if you don’t know who she is, please read about the shenanigans the French-Algerian athlete has gone through to get to Paris. The tl;dr is that France majorly fumbled one of their most promising gymansts due to petty federation politics and is already seeing the consequences: Nemour came in fifth in the all-around and is favored to win gold in the uneven bars final this weekend, after winning silver at Worlds last year. With her scoring potential, she likely could have helped Team France get on the team podium as well. Le sigh.

Interestingly, for qualifications she went for a more obviously patriotic leotard in Algeria’s colors of green and red and white (we don’t see enough green leotards, in my opinion), but for the all-around final she wore a more neutral black and gold. I wonder if that was purposeful, to showcase herself as an individual rather than representing Alegria, or France.

China

China always brings it with the elaborate leotards, which usually feel appropriately patriotic without being so in your face about it (ahem, USA). This year’s are no exception. Sadly the women have had a bit of a rough go at these games, failing to make the team or all-around podium despite the strengths of their athletes. Qiu Qiyuan and Zhou Yaqin are gold medal conteders for bars and beam, respectively, however, so it’s not the last we’ll see of them or their leotards.

Great Britain

Great Britain narrowly lost out on team bronze to Brazil. Would they have won if their leotards were not this dour gray? Ahem, grey. We’ll never know.

Italy

Italy’s leotards are fine? Classic, but not particularly memorable to me. But they’ve had a good showing already having won silver in the team final and Alice D’Amato and Manila Esposito have a few more chances to pick up medals in event finals. I hope they are saving some more exciting leotards for those as well.

Canada

I kind of love when Canada goes full maple leaf, as they did in the team final. For the AA finals, gymnastics fan fave Ellie Black went for a more simple black and gold, similar to Nemour’s look. Ellie Black is Ellie Black and she doesn’t need any national symbols for you to know who she is.

Mexico

WHO DID THIS. Alexa Moreno deserves better in every way, namely this neck ruffle. Sadly the World bronze medalist on vault did not make vault finals, so we will not see her redeem this leotard.

Portugal

You don’t hear much about Portuguese gymnastics, which is a shame as they have great leotards. Filipa Martins represented Portugal in Paris and wore this lovely peacock-like leo to qualifications and a graphic red and white look to the AA finals. Maybe they could loan some to Mexico.

Japan

Japan is giving France a run for its money when it comes to federation shenanigans. Their national champion Shoko Miyata was left off the team due to underage smoking (she is 19 and in Japan smoking is illegal for anyone under 20), and due to some strange internal rules, they did not even replace her with an alternate but just let the women compete with a team of four. Miyata’s coach was in tears stating how much pressure she was under leading up to the Olympics, which likely led to her smoking.

It’s incredible they made it to team finals at all given they were down a gymanst, and their top gymnast no less. Which is lucky for us as we got to see these beautiful graphic blue and black leos. Allegedly this pose they struck while being announced for team finals was in tribute to Miyata; it’s the final pose in her floor routine.

1. I’m going full cheapo here with watermarked Getty Images. I’m sorry if that’s distracting, you’ll just have to deal.