A controversy is brewing about a female member of the swim team for Dimond High School who was disqualified at a swimming and diving meet between Dimond and Chugiak High Schools on Friday. The girl was having a wardrobe violation, or a malfunction, or perhaps she simply wasn’t wearing her swimsuit properly. The coaches said she could not compete.
There are rules about bathing suits in high school swim programs, and they govern standards of “propriety” including modesty and decency.
According to one account, the girl is a large swimmer with a curvy body and she was wearing her suit without prohibited modifications. She was disqualified because of her shape, which is shapely, and possibly because of her race.
According to another account, the girl was wearing her suit in a way to purposely to show more skin.
Not so, writes Lauren Logan, who opened up the Pandora’s box when she criticized the disqualification on the publishing platform Medium and suggested the girl swimmer was being subject to racism, sexism, and a bit of fat shaming.
But Angel Mock, a former swim coach familiar with the situation, had a different view: “I have personally witnessed this swimmer’s suit and can say that it is not being worn in the intended manner. USA swimming has put guidelines in place for us to follow involving coverage of swim suits, and these guidelines have been ignored.”
