Race Day or Runway Ready: African-American Fashion in the Track and Field World
(Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
In June 2022, U.S. sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson debuted in her 200m discipline for the 2022 outdoor season at the 2022 New York Grand Prix and won the race with a wind-legal time of 22.38 seconds. Though her meet-winning time quickly became the talk of the town in the sports world, so did her eye-catching red fishnet bodysuit uniform.
"Always standing out, no matter my performance," said Richardson in an interview shortly after her 100m race earlier in the meet, which she lost to fellow American teammate Aleia Hobbs. "Staying to your truth, I express that in what I wear."
Richardson's race was not the first time track and field fans witnessed uniform attire that seemed otherwise foreign to an athletic stadium, let alone a professional race. In the 1990s, American male sprinter Michael Johnson sprinted into track and field history at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games. Johnson both looked and became American track and field royalty with his double Olympic win in the 200m and 400m races in a flashy matching gold Cuban link necklace and Nike spikes. Johnson's 1996 Summer Olympic win in the 200m also emerged as the men's world record until Jamaica's Usain Bolt's sprinting reign in the late 2000s into the 2010s.
Of course, we cannot forget the still current world record holder in the women's 100m and 200m, Florence "Flo-Jo" Griffith Joyner. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, her race-day-ready uniforms became synonymous with record-breaking performances. A 2016 Vogue editorial piece described Griffth Joyner’s combination of beautifully painted acrylic nails, gold jewelry, and experimentation with various one-piece uniform alterations as "a part of her performance strategy." Beyoncé even dressed as the late-American sprinter for Halloween in 2018, incorporating every detail of Griffith Joyner’s usual go-to look from eye makeup to the iconic red lip.
Griffith Joyner's "look good, feel good" methodology still hits home to many current track and field athletes today. American short hurdles and long jump specialist, Tara Davis, can often be seen donning a cowboy hat and boots before or after her event as an ode to her university alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin.
In an interview last year with New York Times reporter Kris Rhim, Davis said, "This is our job, and anyone that gets ready for their job puts on makeup, and people think about it weird for us because we're competing."
It is just another day in the office on the track for these exceptional athletes and an additional day to showcase their identities outside of a race often completed within seconds. Along with some serious talent on the way this outdoor season, the fashion choices will be something to watch as athletes like Richardson and Davis prepare to compete in this August's World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
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Middle - (Beyonce / Instagram)