The only reason the female contestants wear bikinis is to draw ratings and sponsors. The guys get away with baggy shirts and knee-length pants, so there is obviously no competitive advantage to wear less.

As long as we're inventing sports by changing the substance the event is held on.. how about the ice-decathlon? The jungle marathon? Mid-air parachute ping-pong? Water-polo? (Oh wait, that one's already there.. but I guess the horses couldn't swim.)

If you want to watch volleyball, watch volleyball. If you want to watch women in bikinis, by all means do so, at the pool or beach. Combining them is just a sad commentary on the viewer. Most of the protest against the author's point, when examined closely, devolves into 'Don't take away those purty wimmin!'.

You may find this hard to believe, but these women actually grew up playing this sport... On the beach. May-Treanor and Walsh train not far from where I live... At the beach. So forgive them if they don't wear whatever puritanical garb you deem appropriate.

Just so you know, once you dive for a serve in a corset and ankle-length dress it's almost impossible to get back up.

They grew up playing volleyball. They happened to have played it on a beach. That doesn't make it a sport for the Olympics.

If it does, then every sport should have a variety of versions, each played on a different surface.

It's really embarassing to see sports fans defending it.

Beach volleyball makes the cut because its widely played throughout the world. If other sport "variations" were as widely played and enjoyed then they too would have a shot at being in the olympics.

Trace192,

Most of the sports do have different variations. They're called events. Wouldn't swimming be rad if it was just 100m crawl? No, it would be boring as hell.

Have you ever played beach volleyball?! Or even just tried running in the sand? Beach volleyball is a wildly demanding sport. And I'm sorry if your draconian notions of decency prevent you from understanding that.

Just so you know, once you dive for a serve in a corset and ankle-length dress it's almost impossible to get back up.

But no one said anything about a cors...

Oh, I see what you did there. Very well played.

It's not about puritanical notions of propriety, it's about the fact that the women are dressed in uniforms that make it more difficult to play the game. If they didn't, the men would wear bikini bottoms, too. The only reason for it is to get ratings. If the women actually wore shorts (like women do when they play beach volleyball in real life), they'd lose the whole "Man Show" demographic, and the sponsors would pull out.

eofiss:

(like women do when they play beach volleyball in real life)

Except not. Where I live (Redondo Beach, home of Kerri Walsh), few if any women play beach volleyball in shorts. It's the beach. You wear a swim suit at the beach unless (I hate to say it) you're uncomfortable with your body.. Or in a Ralph Lauren ad... But my madras pants are at the cleaners.

There's a huge difference between playing doubles volleyball in sand and playing sixes on a hard court. There's a lot of overlap in some of the fundamental skills, but the beach game is much more demanding, requires adjustment for wind and sun and requires different timing (not to mention requiring each player to cover much more court space). I'd suspect that anyone who doesn't know this has never tried to play both versions of the game at any level of competition above that of a church picnic/family reunion and should probably do some homework before spouting off.

"It's the beach. You wear a swim suit at the beach"

These posters ignore your facts, because they just want to try to make a stupid feminism point about the "unfairness" of women having to show off their bodies.

Pumpkin, booner,

you are right but also wrong.

are u saying leaders and sponsors of Beach Volleyball, and NBC, do not COUNT on the women to draw ratings to their bikinis?

on the beach, men also wear swimming truncs; how come they do not do so at the professional level? is it possible because it won't draw ratings the same way?

but all this is a tempest on a teacup. have you noticed how female athletes dress for the games? not much less skin that bikinis,,,

ayalonValley:

are u saying leaders and sponsors of Beach Volleyball, and NBC, do not COUNT on the women to draw ratings to their bikinis?

on the beach, men also wear swimming truncs; how come they do not do so at the professional level? is it possible because it won't draw ratings the same way?

http://web.avp.com/index.jsp

Association of Volleyball Professionals. Find me a guy wearing a t-shirt. Why don't they dress the same at the Olympics? Perhaps is those sexist pervs at NBC. Or not, I higly doubt the network is saying, "Girls, looking good! Guys, for heaven's sake put a shirt on!"