Carly Patterson

Carly Patterson

DALLAS, Aug 21, 2004/ FW/ --- When 16-year old Carly Patterson won the All-Around Gold Medal last Thursday in Athens, she was wearing a red adidas gymnastic suit specially designed for the U.S. Olympics team.

Designed more for function than fashion, all Olympic level uniforms must be able to withstand all the twists and turns that the human body can do as an athlete in top form.

Looking back in 1896, the start of the modern Olympic Games, which was also held in Athens, April 6 – 15, 1896, the uniforms worn by athlete is a far cry from the high-tech and ergonomic designs of today.

After over a century, the Olympic Games returns to Athens, this time as the XXVII Olympiad, and with it came more athletes competing in more games and over 100 years of human technological advances, with fabrics, textiles and design of uniforms as just one of them.

Carly Patterson

One of the more popular games during the Olympics, Women’s Gymnastics is given full coverage by the television networks. Billions of people watched as gymnasts from all over the world vaulted, tumbled and twisted on the floor, on the rings and on the parallel bars.

Team uniforms, which were provided by the athletes’ countries in the beginning has become a showcase for sports companies like Adidas, Nike and Reebok, wherein they sponsor the uniforms for the teams.

Granted, it is a form of soft advertising, but more important, the Olympic Games is also a launch pad of a company’s latest technological advances. The Olympic athletes literally wear the cutting-edge of technology!

Though function is the main element taken into consideration when designing the athletes’ uniforms, form and fashion are also regarded as important because our world today demands nothing less.

Hence, the U.S. women’s gymnastic team was seen in at least three sets of uniforms – white with a blue diagonal stripe decorated with stars; red, white and blue that graphically represented the Olympic flame; and the all red uniform with a baby bib embroidered with the Team USA Olympic logo and glittering crystals on the side and under the arms, the one that Carly Patterson was wearing when she won her Olympic gold.

The US artistic gymnastics teams stand on podium with their silver medals after the artistic gymnastics women's team final in Athens. Courtney Kupets, Annia Hatch, Terin Humphrey, Carly Patterson, Courtney McCool and Mohini Bhardwaj (L-R) of the U.S. artistic gymnastics team stand on the podium with their silver medals after the women's team final at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games August 17, 2004. Romania won gold in the team final ahead of the U.S. and Russia.