Gymnasts are widely regarded as some of the most elite athletes among Olympic sports. However, Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) has recently been under a more critical magnified glass. The cultural and institutional structures of the sport have been questioned for normalizing the sexualization of its female athletes. In 2018, USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced for sexually abusing 172 gymnasts (Wellman et al. 2020). These tragic events initiated broader discourse, including the perspectives of Nassar’s victims, on how the sport renders women vulnerable to abuse, undermines their autonomy, and projects sociocultural norms defined through the male gaze (Associated Press 2021). In addition to many of Nassar’s victims making public statements during and following the trial, gymnasts from other countries have also contributed to the protest towards desexualizing and protecting women in gymnastics.

Challenging the Sport on the Olympic Stage

Tokyo 2020 marked the first Olympic Games since Nassar’s trial and remains an active topic within broader discourse. Among other concerns is the consideration for gymnasts’ uniforms contributing to the sexualization of their bodies. Female gymnasts typically compete wearing bikini cut leotards that reveal their legs from inner thigh seam down. The conflict of being judged on technical skills while competing in exposing attire blurs the line between judging physical performance and physical aesthetic. At the 2020 Olympic Games, the German WAG Team chose to take a stand to this by competing in unitards. The Gymnastics Federation affirmed their position by stating how their intentions were to deliberately protest the sexualization of female gymnasts’ bodies (Lewis 2021).

German 2020 Olympic WAG Team Podium Training Photo

In contrast to traditional leotards, unitards provide full coverage of the torso and legs and are typically designed to accommodate individuals with religious or cultural consideration. This made the circumstances of the German team particularly unique as none of them required these accommodations yet were the only collective team at the Olympics to wear this style (Associated Press 2021). In the following video from the German Olympic trials, one month prior to the Games, Olympic veterans Kim Bui, Elisabeth Seitz, and Sarah Voss are shown competing in unitards on their own accord, expressing their desires to promote greater autonomy for female gymnasts (CTGN 2021). During this event, they further voiced concerns about how their bodies can be captured and presented in media and highlighted score deductions for adjusting leotards during competition – even if necessary to avoid inappropriate exposure.

To better situate the German WAG Team’s 2020 Olympic Performance, examining the theoretical foundations of the sport aids in a more comprehensive analysis. The following research explores the history of WAG as a sexist sport, the characteristics that constitute gymnastics as a form of performance and draws on feminist theory to bring attention to how the sport allows for the sexualization and objectification of women. Together, the German WAG team’s performance can be interpreted as a resistance of the male gaze through the assertion of women’s autonomy, thereby challenging the gender norm embedded in sport and society.

The History of WAG as a Sexist Sport

Understanding the history of women’s gymnastics is paramount for contextualizing its contemporary developments. From WAG’s 1928 Olympic debut (United States Olympic & Paralympic Museum 2023), the sport’s trajectory reflects many social and institutional values. This historical analysis establishes the foundation for examining the German WAG teams 2020 performance by outlining the sport’s sexist structure, its aesthetic and technical evolution, and the ways gymnasts have conformed to or challenged its embedded gender norms.

In addition to gender segregated categories, men and women largely compete on different apparatuses. Men’s events include the horizontal bar, rings, parallel bars, pommel horse, vault, and floor, while women compete on the balance beam, uneven bars, vault, and floor. Vault is the only apparatus closely shared. Although both compete on floor, women are required to perform to music and include dance elements, whereas men are not permitted to incorporate these. Prior to the 1928 recognition of WAG, women trained on the same apparatuses as men. The balance beam and uneven bars were then created as modified apparatuses to align with performance qualities associated with femininity such as beauty, passivity, and grace (International Gymnastics Federation 2020). The International Olympic Committee (IOC) subsequently deemed WAG a suitable sport for women and circumvented comparisons to men.

The 1970s marked a transition that many saw as WAG’s golden era (Cervin 2020). Traditional WAG emphasized elegance and balletic movements (Cervin 2020), whereas women during this time began competing powerful, dynamic skills, conventionally reserved for men (Cervin 2020). This redirected the sport towards younger, smaller, physically resilient athletes rather than physiques conveying sexual maturity and appeal (Cervin 2015). This evolution coupled the need for uniforms that prioritized function over aesthetic, encouraging the rise of the leotard (Cervin 2015). This eliminated two-piece, waist exposing uniforms, and designs accentuating curves and feminine features. The following video comparison between 1950s/60s and 2016 gymnastics illustrates these shifts:

In recent years, gymnasts have increasingly challenged broader gender norms, including age related expectations. Oksana Chusovikita, a 49-year-old, eight-time Olympian and three-time medalist, has been a spearheading example of this. Although her success defies the stereotype that gymnastics is a young girls’ sport, the media continues to emphasize her personal life and role as a mother over her quality of gymnastics (Allain & Dotto 2023). This continues to isolate athletes that exceed age expectations and reinforces the sport’s gender norms (Allain & Dotto 2023).

On March 8, 2025, Chusovitina won gold on the vault at the Baku World Cup (GymnasticsResults.com 2025). Joining her on the podium are 30-year-old silver medalist, Teja Belak, and 31-year-old bronze medalist, Tjasa Kysselef.

Medalists Podium at the 2025 Baku World Cup

In contrast to the 2024 Baku World Cup, the vault podium included 18-year-old Valentina Georgieva (gold), 21-year-old An Chang-ok (silver) and 20-year-old Karla Navas (bronze) (GymnasticsResults.com 2024). The average age of the 2024 vault medalists was 19.67 years old, versus 36.67 years old. Despite selective media coverage as indicated by Allain and Dotto, female gymnasts exceeding the conventional age range are not only competing, but also succeeding at an elite level. Women’s gymnastics has evidently undergone a significant yet gradual transformation over the past century. Gender norms have dictated apparatus creation, competitive standards, and performance characteristics. The sports history sets the stage for analyzing how and why the German WAG team’s performance challenges gender normativity.

Gymnasts as Competitors and Performers

Utilizing a performance studies analysis of the German WAG team is essential for defining what constitutes this as a performance. Drawing on the theories of Richard Schechner, Ervin Goffman, and Paul Kuntz, gymnastics can be interpreted as a form of performance that intersects athletics and art (Goffman 1959, Kuntz 1974, Scehchener 2020). Schechner articulates the parallels between theatre and sports such as actors to athletes, audiences to spectators, and costumes to uniforms. In addition to comparing roles and aesthetic characteristics, he addresses the challenges of performance studies when confronted with how to identify performances throughout cultures and time, which McAuley refers to as a “field without limitations” (Schechner 2020). McAuley uses Schechner’s idea of restored behaviors – “a set of actions that can be repeated, revised and reinterpreted” (Schechner 2020) – to define performances. This framework applies to gymnastics through its systematically regulated skills, routines, judging, and rules. Kuntz elaborates on certain aesthetic components, positioning gymnasts as artists shaped by beauty standards and judged on the execution of them (Kuntz 1974). He argues that sports aim to win, and the arts aim to exhibit beauty, however, gymnastics intersects both (Kuntz 27). Demonstrating this conflict is 1960s-70s male gymnast Neal Shartar, who argued that a gymnast’s beauty is rooted in performing gymnastics itself, rather than conforming to aesthetic standards used to quantify it. As an act of resistance, Shatar refused to cut his hair to meet the men’s guidelines set by his coaches, and consequently his scholarship to the University of Georgia’s was revoked. This incident coincides with Goffman’s performer-audience relationship theory, emphasizing the reciprocal influence of one role on the other (Goffman 1959). In sport, this relationship shapes how athletes perform based on spectator expectation, and how spectators may respond under normative influences. Collectively, the theories of Schechner, Kuntz, and Goffman frame gymnastics as a gendered performance, positioning athletes to either conform to or challenge the sport’s norms.

Examining Women’s Gymnastics Through Feminist Theory

Circumstantially and historically examining athletes such as Chusovitina, Shatar, and now the German WAG team, underscores the value of utilizing feminist theory to analyze the 2020 Tokyo performance. Considering social, cultural, and institutional influences, their performance can be acknowledged as a resistance of the male gaze and an assertion of women’s autonomy.

Paving way for this discussion, Laura Mulvey builds on Freud’s theory of sexuality, associating activity with masculinity and passivity with femininity (Oliver 2017). This concept defines the idea of the male gaze – initially used to analyze how films represent women from the perspective and desires of heterosexual men (King 2020). She emphasizes that depicting women as passive leads to acts of voyeurism and fetishism, consequently subjecting their bodies to being viewed as desired objects of possession (Oliver 2017). The binary structure of gymnastics which has remained consistent over time is an example of how the male gaze has shaped the way sport are performed. WAG was approved by the IOC in 1928 because it was seen as an appropriate sport that upheld the image of society’s ideal woman – beautiful, graceful, and elegant. Gymnasts are still restricted to competing on gender specific apparatuses, abiding by the rules pertain to them, and expected to compete in traditional unfirms. Thus, the German WAG team competing in non-traditional unitards actively resists the male gaze.

Expanding on the concept of male, objectification theory is used to describe the psychological ramifications women experience from continual exposure to objectifying perspectives, resulting in self-objectification (Nezlek et al. 2014). Supporting this theory is a study by Nezlek et al., which showed images of athletes in sexualized and non-sexualized manners to a group of participants, then asked each participant to rate these athletes’ perceived attractiveness and competence. Findings were that athletes in sexualized images were viewed as more attractive but less competent in comparison to athletes in non-sexualized images. Generally, these responses were amplified when shown female athletes (Nezlek et al. 2014). This feedback loop demonstrates how the male gaze provokes objectification and supports Goffman’s perceptive of performer-audience reciprocity. In the context of gymnastics, the roles of spectators, fans, judges, and commentators all individually and uniformly embody the role of the audience. The audience members, like the study participants, may form and project their own interpretations of an athlete’s performance and contributing to the objectification cycle.

These feminist frameworks help in analyzing the chronological evolution of WAG. As athletic demands of WAG in the 1970s shifted from traditionally feminine performance characteristics, the aesthetic image shifted towards younger, more child-like athletes (Cervin 2015). Gymnastics historian, Georgia Cervin, acknowledges this era as propelling the desexualization of female gymnasts (Cervin 2015). The technical advancements which led to prioritizing younger and physically resilient athletes aided in dissolving the sexualized image that was previously upheld. As the first female gymnast to score a perfect ten, Nadia Comaneci became the standard for perfection. Not only was the technical quality of her gymnastics idolized, but also the aesthetic qualities she possessed. Her physique, age, demeanor, and attire worn were elements associated with achieving perfection, echoing the idea of physical perfection socially expected of women. The contrast in technical and aesthetic elements becomes evident when comparing the 1950s/60s gymnasts to that of Nadia Comaneci at the 1976 Olympics:

Conclusion

Historically, WAG uniforms accentuated sexual maturity and only transitioned towards functionality in the 1970s. Why is it then, the German team in 2020 labelled the same leotards attributed to desexualizing the sport as leading to the sexualization of their bodies? This can be viewed through Schechner’s theory that a performance has different meaning and interpretation based on its time and culture. Bikini style leotards may not be sexualized on young girls due to
ethical, sociocultural, and legal norms that govern perception of children in this context. In present day, as Olympic gymnasts are typically older, these leotards often expose features associated with adult femininity and become socially normalized as objects of sexualization.

Analyzing the German team’s performance requires an interdisciplinary perspective and lends opportunity for integrating feminist theory, history, and performance studies. Even while subject to critique, the unitards worn by the German WAG team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was a display of reclaiming bodily autonomy and resisting sexualization through the male gaze.

References

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