The Olympics - the most competitive international sporting event in the world. Who knew that this major sporting event would be a hub for… fashion?
Though people typically watch the Olympic games for the sports, it’s actually a great place to take note of the variety of athletic uniforms and warm up gear.
As a former collegiate cross country runner, I never missed out on watching the Olympics. In fact, one of my favorite aspects of watching the Olympics was observing the athletes' uniforms. Each country has their own Olympic clothing collection developed before each Olympic games. These collections are usually released by athletic wear giants, Nike and Adidas.
These collections typically consist of: jerseys, singlets, shorts, tights, jackets, pants, and even socks.
The Olympics are the perfect opportunity for each country and its distributor to be creative with how they want their athletes to look.
In order to make the decision of which country has the best team style, I'm going to award the top three with either a gold, silver or bronze medal. The results are based on the 2012 and 2016 Olympic games and how creative each team collection looked.
That being said I have to award the BRONZE MEDAL to:
SWEDEN
Their warm up gear and uniforms’ sleek and modern design was a major selling point for me. The integration of Sweden's flag colors, blue and yellow, are very appealing to the eye. It was hard to miss any Swedish athlete on the track with that color-blocked design. Their 2016 uniforms were designed by Swedish fashion label H&M.
Coming in second for the SILVER MEDAL:
GREAT BRITAIN
Great Britain is a nation with a rich history so their athletes needed a uniform that really represented their British patriotism. Great Britain was one of very few countries that has had consistently well designed olympic gear. Their 2012 and 2016 gear were BOTH eye-catching and patriotic.
The moment we have all waited for, the GOLD MEDAL is awarded to:
RUSSIA
There is no arguing that Russia has had some of the most interesting Olympic gear over the last two Olympic games. Their bright red jackets from the 2012 games were the first to catch my eye. Its design was beyond cool and honestly made me wish I was competing as a Russian athlete. Their track and field uniforms were very simple but modern and, well, “very Russian.” The white singlet featuring the block letters “Russia'' across the chest was so appealing. For countries such as France, you could barely indicate which country the athlete was from, as the lettering was small and barely readable. Russia's uniforms, like the country itself, were divergent and daunting which landed them the gold medal.
Looking over each nations olympic gear is always interesting when each olympic games rolls around. It's a moment of great pride for the athlete to bear their nations name across their chest and a moment for spectators from all over the world to come together to celebrate sport.
I'm excited to see what this year's games will bring!