'Soul Cap' Ruling Proves More Diversity Needed In Sports | Olympics Reject Swim Caps For B
Swim caps catered to Black athletes with natural hair have been banned from the Olympic Games. The federation for international competitions in water sports rejected Black-owned Soul Cap from use in competition, saying the caps deviate from "the natural form of the head."
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Speaking of antiquated rules at the olympics, okay, they're slowly starting to make progress, and just i just want to stall the prompter for a second because we're going to get to this next story. But they just until recently breastfeeding mothers couldn't even bring their children to the sport. So they've been very antiquated when it came to nursing, breastfeeding even being a mother in athletics. How much time you get off? We saw that recently, even with serena williams. I know that doesn't really boil under the olympic umbrella, but they have a lot of work to do so. Speaking of which there's another story, that's got a lot of people up in arms. Swim caps that are designed for swimmers with natural hair have been banned from the game, so soul, cap, a black-owned company that designed and manufactured swimming caps, got rejected from the federation for international competitions and water sports. That group said that the soul caps deviate from quote the natural form of the head. Now the company has responded, saying quote: we hope to further our work for diversity and swimming by having our swim caps certified for competition, so swimmers at any level don't have to choose between the sport, they love and their hair. This is so antiquated when i swam and i swam at a division, one school, i swam at the olympic level, and i had a number of uh teammates, two teammates at ucla that had natural hair. They had to wear two swim caps, two swim caps. So, first of all, having a soul cap and there's other companies that produce swim caps for natural hair, but they're. Just so far few between when you go to a sporting goods store to get. You know your speedo swimsuit and your speedo swim cap. They don't offer anything like soul caps, so my friends used to have to wear two swim caps and it would rip out their hair. So the fact that there's number one very little diversity when it comes to swimming but number two, that they don't even have representation and the olympics is a little different, because, if you're sponsored by a brand, that should be up to the brand to make sure that They'Re inclusive, so it's not really the athlete's choice to say i want to wear a soul cap. Unfortunately, if you're sponsored by nike nike should have an option like a soul cap no sam. I really appreciate you bringing this story up and adding your perspective, because when it comes down to it in the world of swimming, you are the expert on this panel. I can speak as in terms of the hair element, deviate from the natural form of the head. What does that even mean right? What'S the natural form of the head, isn't your natural hair, just as your natural hair sam, would be the natural form of the hair. However, it goes into the swim cap and on top of it, i'm no swimming expert, but isn't the aerodynamics kind of making you uh more of an advantage and this cap isn't as aerodynamic as the standard cap yeah. So what is the problem? It would seem like a disadvantage yeah, it's just plain them being antiquated, just like they were all these years with not allowing your breastfeeding child to be with you and the speedo 50 was created for caucasian women's hair in order to keep it under there. So somebody who just swam when i was little with the caps, your hair doesn't fit in there comfortably or make any sense, and so i think, with swimming in general, even from a high school level, we saw with brecon willis in alaska. The swim suit was made for somebody with a different body than hers so because of her body shape, she was disqualified and then allowed back in, and so that's another example of why swimming maybe needs to diversify, and so having people look really closely into these issues. With the olympics is something that we have to change moving forward, because it's not inclusive for black people. Black women well said you
Comments
KiraMajeric: I am a age group parent for my daughter's swim team, I have an average of 18 7-8 year old girls. I help a lot of them get their team caps on and the soul cap our definitely help 2 or 3 of my girls.
Chris Shore: I want to see a video of someone in a competitive program practice wearing one of these. I saw one guy swimming a little in one and it popped off multiple times becauseit had a largeair bubblein it. Maybe if it was tighter but when you dive in it will put so much pressure on your neck from the water wrenching it back from the shape and the air bubble.
Lisa Maynard: I have one thing to say. White women with very thick, long hair also have to cut their hair down to fit into the regulation swim caps. There's very little difference here. Everyone who's hair doesn't fit under a regular cap has to cut it off short.
Betsy Olsson-Mackowski: Swim caps are unpleasant in general for everyone but I do feel that this is an equity issue because natural hair requires treatment that society does not consider the "default". I am sure current regulation swim caps could be improved a lot with better materials and better designs and they should offer more options for folks with long, fluffy, curly, fragile or dry hair. Pool chlorine is very harsh so everyone, who wants to, should be able to wear a swim cap to protect their hair.
YJK: Seems like a bigass swim cap would slow them down more than give them any kind of advantage. If that's the case, I don't see an issue. I think by "the natural form of the head" they just mean the shape of the skull and the head without the hair.
C: Why are we STILL being surprised?
Joekate121609: They want speedo to get all the money.
La. Peach: When the Grammys didn't represent our music, we was blessed with the BET awards, soul train, etc. Hopefully, All Star weekend can be more than basketball and we can better support businesses like Soulfro.
Ev Morals: AND WHEN WE ARE SCORING POORLY WE ALWAYS HAVE SOME PATHETIC REASON FOR DOING SO. THIS IS WHY THE WORLD HATE US. STOP ENTITLEMENT ATTITUDE...JUST COMPETE AND BE DONE
Ms. Michale, An Ode to Early Childhoo: People with long hair have cap issues. It isn't a black or white issue....smh. Try getting 18 inches of pony tail in a cap. As an athlete you have to alter body and dress for a lot of things..... I'm done with the whole race division thing and "look at our differences" and be mad if someone differs attitude.
DRAGON BALZIČ: 2:42 Don’t you mean fluid dynamics when it’s used in a liquid environment?
The Duchess of Essex: I am glad Sam has the expertise to speak on this issue
Climate Tech: 2:20 - "what is the natural form of the head" well, if it's a human you're talking about - the natural shape of the head is round.
bnose202: Well covered story. Great job
Jason Eaton: The basketball..track . Teams get behind this
Rambo 14: Sha'Carri Richardson: is a real World Class Champion! And took it like a real Champ!
893 R6: 2:38 lol you're not a physics class graduate either
TheDailySnuggles: MANSPLAIN COMMIN IN HOT!!!!! what they are trying to say is that if you where to use one of these "Xl hair caps" YOU would be putting yourself at a DISADVANTAGE AS it dose not follow "the natural form of the head" aka fluid dynamics or you can even think about it as aerodynamics the more junk u have flapping away in the breeze or in this case water the more drag you produce and therefor will be slower than your competitors and why would they want YOU as a top athlete to have a disadvantage when they would ban a swimming cap for being too aerodynamic. its not about race or rejecting diversity, its about the clear disadvantages of using a cap such as this, more drag = less speed = increased time = better chance of not wining (and y'all can say w.e you want about "its not about wining its about being inclusive boohoo" well its a sport and sports have winners and losers we even give out different classes of metals based on how good they did based on value so don't tell me we don't place value on those who win in sport
Dennis V: Since when does racial diversity play into Olympic swimming? ALL the swimmers cut their hair or shave their heads to be more aerodynamic. How many black Olympic swimmers compete with an afro? Then they call it a Soul Cap which is about as stereotypical as it gets. Are they going to design a swim cap for Asian swimmers next and call it a Kung Fu cap? Ridiculous.
Brandon Lynch: Oh my God this is so annoying. Just let them wear whatever they want. I'm tired of hearing them whine and complain about everything. If they want to wear a bleeping fedora let them do that.
Tigerlilly: EVERY DAMN STEP AND TURN IS A FIGHT for persons of certain phenotypes to navigate in this world. Are you ( the world) seeing this people? Are you SEEING THIS. EVERY.DAMN.STEP. *THIS IS EXHAUSTING*
Mariah C. Crawley: I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE THIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! THESE WOMEN WENT INNNNNN! LOOOOOOOOOVING THE SISTERHOOD!
Mr Green Jeans: Corey Booker claims the ban on soul caps is prove of systemic racism. In other news, Corey finished his letter to Santa hoping to get the new X box system for Christmas, found 2 dollar beneath his pillow last night from the tooth fairy and scheduled a family vacation on a South African Megladon site seeing trip south of the Cape.
rob Jones: Oh come on ; why don’t you all just grow up? I’m starting to get a little bit fed up of all this entitled “black crap”. If the water is bad for your hair why don’t you just shave it all off like other Olympic swimmers do? They make sacrifices to win, why can’t you?
Denis Daly: Old men run the Olympics. These caps do not confer an advantage.
DRAGON BALZIČ: Is there a competitive or hydrodynamic advantage to these caps? I have to laugh when they say Natural Hair as if Asian, Latino and Caucasian hair is somehow unnatural
l B: Seems to me your priorities are a bit , if your hair is your main concern says a lot about character. Just saying.
Hoang Vo: No offense but wouldn't the shape of these capse increase drag? More surface area generally means an increase in drag, less speed etc. I couldn't care less about the caps. Wear whatever the fuck you want.
Mackey: The Olympic committee is a ALL white board. What did y'all expect ?
Victoria Oyenekan: I cannot describe in words the rage I felt when I read 'Does not conform to the natural form of the head'. Unbelievably disgusting!!
Karson C: Stop a black own company from turning into a billion dollar business smh
DRAGON BALZIČ: 00:49 that looks like Tutankhamen’s skullcap
lilflasheyc: This is so dumb to me. Can’t they just braid it down or something and wear the regular cap that they’re supposed to
Liam J: Oh my god two swim caps!
Skyguy Anakin :3: Megamind
mayapapaya77: Is that pic the soul cap?? omg ain’t nobody wearing that! Why not just cornrow your hair and it won’t be that big?? Are there not different swim cap sizes already? Some ppl got big as heads so they need a bigger cap. You gotta change a little due the Olympics. You can’t have dreads down your back and think you can fit in a swim cap. And that’s for black and white ppl cause some white ppl have dreads. Also swim caps are uncomfortable for everyone and chlorine is bad for everyone’s hair and not all black ppl have the same kind of hair there are black ppl with straight hair.
ZIPPERNECK: Sure, let them swim with a Hefty Bag on their head... good look at stepping up on the podium! Talk about the frickin' drag factor! mmuuuhhhahahaha.
Jack Black: Shave your head, those a silly
Kevin2382: Everybody has to wear the same thing, same swimsuits same swim caps everything. Cut your hair it grows back
The Kendy Show: Stop treating black women’s hair like a handicap. My black mother used to wear the regular swim caps to swim all the time in the 80’s. This cap is huge! Do you honestly think you will go anywhere with this huge thing on your head? It will act similar to a parachute and hold you back. Do you honestly believe white peoples hair doesn’t get ruined too from all that chlorine? Do you honestly think this will stay on your head for competitive swimming? Please stop with these ridiculous antics. It’s becoming very immature. Black hair isn’t a handicap and will work just fine if you stop trying to make it be straight. All these extra precautions just to maintain a slayed hair do and risk losing your livelihood has gone way to far.
Heraut Leader: If they want the natural form of the head then they should ALL shave their heads... This seems to be cherry picking...
Jettugi: People don't seem to realize that the "form of the head" is defined as the overall form of the head WITH the cap in the equation. As such, the larger hair which requires larger cap, which is against the regulation, is defined as a form of the head that is not on par with the regulation. It has nothing to do with the structure of the head, the skull etc. The only instance the skull would be out of bounds with the rule is if they are Martians. It has nothing to do with race. Stop pulling the race card, it only alienates a group of people even further and hate only grows from there.
punkydamonkey: Dont think its "racism" but it's definitely idiotic
Bryan Toth: They could always shave their head.
Bryan Toth: If their hair is more important than participating in the Olympics, leave.
Brandon Jones: There doesnt need to be anymore diversity in sports, there is already plenty. Its simple, there are some equipment that is banned, and there is others that is ok. Whatever swimmer that is upset she cant wear this swim cap shes sponsoring or whatever, thats her own fault. She shoulda checked with the committee to see if this particular cap was allowed or not before getting sponsored. And if you want to complain about this to draw attention, that just means you probably arent a very good swimmer to begin with, because youll use this as an excuse as to why you lost. Phelps wasnt able to wear whatever suite thing he wanted to that 1 olympics, guess what, he still won gold in every event. You didnt see him crying and complaining yelling racism racism, blah blah. No, he buckled down and won every event he was in. People nowadays are such little babies. Suck it up and move on. The world doesnt have to cater to you people for everything, you arent special.
D Mac: When did the fight fight for equality turn into special treatment. Cut your hair, it grows back
Not Me But You: Not surprised.
squelch079: Really this is another thing to maon about ?? Racist swimming caps ??!
B4TR: It's simple. Take the weave and wigs out and the cap will fit......
luis nieves: yes, reject these dumb caps .it's called nappy hair!