Since the dawn of the world’s annual Wimbledon Tennis Championships (the oldest tennis tournament in the world), wearing all-white garb from head-to-toe has been a compulsory tradition for all athletes competing — up until November last year.
After multiple female athletes competing in Wimbledon voiced their concerns in protest against the strict all-white dress code in 2022, Wimbledon finally caught wind of how the dress code negatively impacts female players on their periods.
For years, the only option for female players competing in Wimbledon during their period was to take extra (and sometimes extreme) measures such as taking birth control pills just to mitigate the risk of bleeding (and showing) during tournaments.
The All-England Tennis Club finally addressed the issue in November last year and changed the rules to prioritise individual needs of female players during tournaments. The new rules were issued as follows:
“Any undergarments that either are or can be visible during play (including due to perspiration) must also be completely white except for a single trim of colour no wider than one centimetre (10mm), except female players who are allowed to wear solid, mid/dark-coloured undershorts provided they are no longer than their shorts or skirt.”
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Women in Wimbledon wear all black shorts for first time historically
Fast-forward to Wimbledon’s 136th Tennis Championships in London 2023. We’re three days into the international tennis tournaments that kicked off on Monday, 3 July.
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Defending champion Elena Rybakina from Kazakhstan has just won the match again US’ Shelby Rogers on Centre Court. However, Rybakina and Rogers both make history for a different reason. They’re two of the first female players to wear black shorts on the Wimbledon Court.
This moment comes after former No. 1 Wimbledon champ Victoria Azarenka wore slightly subtler dark green shorts on Monday in her match against Czech player Linda Fruhbirtova.
An article published by Huffington Post quotes Rybakina discussing the black shorts:
“I think it’s good to have an option, but [at] the same time I was also fine with all white.”
“I think changes are good and we still have the same tradition to be in full white. It’s just maybe [a] little adjustment. Overall I think it’s good, yeah.”
Finally, in a historic moment, Wimbledon has accommodated their female athletes by changing age-old dress code traditions.
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Feature Image: Instagram / @lenarybakina
