Norwegian Women’s Handball Team Fined For Refusing To Wear Skimpy Undies During Tournament!
Norwegian Women’s Handball Team Fined For Refusing To Wear Skimpy Undies During Tournament!
The Norwegian Women’s Handball team were fined $2,400 for not wearing regulation uniforms for their match against Spain this week. Hoping to send a message to the European Handball Federation, the women chose longer blue bicycle shorts instead of skimpy bikini bottoms to play the match in and good on them we say!
According to the International Handball Federation’s handbook, female athletes must wear bikini bottoms “with a close fit and cut on an upward angle toward the top of the leg. The side width must be of a maximum of 10 centimetres.”
Men on the other hand must wear longer shorts that are “not too baggy” and “10 centimetres above the kneecap.” Sexist BS or what?
The Norwegian beach volleyball girls wanted to play in these shorts instead of in bikini bottoms which they found too revealing but were threatened by the EC tournament organizer with fines if they wore anything covering more than 10cm of their butts pic.twitter.com/LHSxXz91CM
— Tradia (@amalieskram) July 15, 2021
The European Handball Federation fined the team because as they said the shorts were “not according to the Athlete Uniform Regulations defined in the IHF Beach Handball Rules of the game”.
The fine worked out at 150 euros per player and was criticised by the Norwegian federation, while the country’s sports minister Abid Raja said it was “completely ridiculous” and attitudes needed to change.
The Norwegian federation said on Twitter it was proud of the women for standing up and saying enough was enough.
“We at NHF stand behind you and support you. Together we will continue to fight to change the rules for clothing so that players can play in the clothes they are comfortable with,” they said.
This is what they have to wear. They say these bottoms make them feel unnecessarily sexualized + uncomfortable when they have their periods and the likes. They will however play in them as long as they are mandatory by the CEV. pic.twitter.com/OYmmS5PyGi
— Tradia (@amalieskram) July 15, 2021
For the most part of the tournament, the Norwegian women’s team wore the skimpy bikini bottoms. But on Sunday, in a “spontaneous” moment, the team said no to the bikini bottoms and wore thigh-length bike shorts instead. Team captain Katinka Haltvik spoke to the Norwegian public broadcasting company NRK:
“Now we just do it, then we will see what happens,” Haltvik said. “People cheered on us as we walked in front of several teams and took the brunt. Not all teams can afford to pay such fines.”
And while the team may have lost their match to Spain they won hearts all over the world by helping women get closer to wearing whatever they are most comfortable in to play sport.
“I hope we get a breakthrough for this and that next summer we play in what we want,” Haltvik told NRK.
UPDATE: the women demonstratively wore shorts to their bronze final match against Spain in spite of the rules and the Norwegian handball federation has said it will pay the fine for the girls. Hopefully the IHF won’t make real of their previous threats to disqualify them. pic.twitter.com/WLlMjTQSv8
— Tradia (@amalieskram) July 18, 2021
Images: Twitter and Reddit
Chrystal Lovevintage
Chrystal is a writer and blogger who loves nothing more than watching back to back episodes of crime shows. Should she ever find herself needing to cover up a crime, she'll know exactly what to do! Her dream is to one day live in Palm Springs where she can do her writing poolside while drinking endless gin and tonics. Mum to the cutest twin boys in the world, she loves nothing more than the sound of their laughter (usually heard when they're conspiring against her). Entertainment writer and pop culture junkie, she will be bringing you all the celebrity gossip and news that your brain can handle. You can follow her blog at https://lovechrystal.com.au and on Instagram at Chrystalovevintage
