Germany unveiled its 2014 Winter Olympics team uniforms Tuesday to a rainbow of reactions — oohs and aahs and gasps and giggles. And a few hearty guffaws.
The uniform colour palette is, well, basically everything. As you can see, the jackets are striped yellow, white, green and blue with white pants for the men and patterned red and orange pants for the women athletes (and black pants for team officials).
There’s definitely a 1970s vibe going on there. Or, as ESPN said, “German uniforms scream ‘Brady Bunch.’”
But a lot of people — at least those not blinded by the rainbow glare of the uniforms — are seeing much more in the German team outfits. They are seeing what The Huffington Post called “a powerful political statement.”
“Political” because, of course, Vladimir Putin, the gangster president of Russia, has stepped up his pogrom against gays in recent months (with widespread public approval, I should add). Russian authorities have said they will enforce laws against “gay propaganda” during the Winter Olympics in Sochi and have threatened to arrest any foreigners — be they athletes or tourists — who show outwardly homosexual or lesbian behaviour or who promote gayness in any fashion.
Of course there has been all sorts of international outrage, including the ongoing boycott of Russian and (supposedly) Latvian vodka, but no actual boycott of the Sochi Olympics themselves seems to be brewing in any corner of the Olympic world.
And the International Olympic Committee seems to be siding with — or at least appeasing — Putin by threatening to ban any athlete wearing a rainbow pin or other symbol of support for the gay-lesbian-etc-etc community in Russia at the Winter Games.
So that’s why the design of the German team uniform is being hailed today as such a “powerful political statement.” The day-glo jackets and pants are seen as just one big gay-pride, rainbow-flag hug for Russia’s gays.
Of course, German officials are vehemently denying the connection, as they must to avoid any possible IOC sanction.
But, you know what — I think the German officials are being straight-up (sorry) and I really do not think the Team Deutschland uniforms are a phantasmagoria of colours to show intentional support for Russia’s gay community. I think it’s just a happy coincidence.
I think the uniforms are gloriously, painfully ugly on their own merits. After all, Germany’s Olympic uniform designers have a track record of coming up with splashy, pretty-darn-gay outfits all on their own, without a political or social-conscious push of any kind.
You probably don’t remember, but here’s a look back at Germany’s Olympic uniform from the 2012 London Summer Olympics.
And here’s the uniform Team Germany wore for the opening of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
To tell you the truth, I actually don’t think the new jackets look so bad — without the red and orange bloodbath pants. Look at the guy below in the white pants. The jacket doesn’t look nearly so garish on him, does It?
Besides, the uproar over Russia’s gay crackdown only really heated up a few months ago and Olympic uniforms take at least a year, usually much more, to be designed, developed, haggled over, approved, changed, re-approved, manufactured, modelled and marketed. It’s big business and not something that’s going to be flipped over in a couple of months on a political whim. (Adidas is the clothing supplier for the German team.)
Anyway, there’s going to be a much more potent symbol of gay solidarity circulating at the Sochi Olympics — and it has the Russian government stamp of approval.
The Russians have just unveiled their official Sochi 2014 Olympic mittens. Here they are.
What do they remind you of — especially with a couple of dabs of orange and purple fabric paint?
Can’t you just see 5,000 pairs of rainbow hands raised defiantly in the stands at the official opening ceremony? Hopefully there will be a few clenched-fist rainbow mitts raised by athletes on the winners podiums as well. There is an Olympic tradition, you know.
