Norway’s beach handball team REFUSES to wear bikini bottoms and faces a fine after competing in non-regulation shorts instead
- The Scandinavians wore shorts instead of regulation bikinis in Sunday’s match
- Norway’s handball federation said Monday it was ready to pay the possible fine
- The issue of clothing has been debated in beach sports circles for several years
- In a reverse, two German beach volleyball players boycotted a Qatar tournament earlier this year after they were initially told they could not wear bikinis
Norway’s beach handball team is facing a fine after the players refused to wear bikini bottoms in a match, instead competing in non-regulation shorts.
The Norwegian handball federation said Monday it was ready to pay the possible fine after the women’s team defied official regulations.
The Scandinavians wore shorts instead of the bikini required by the International Handball Federation’s (IHF) rules in their bronze medal match against Spain at the European Beach Handball Championship in Varna, Bulgaria, on Sunday.
Norway’s beach handball team is facing a fine after the players refused to wear bikini bottoms in a match, instead competing in non-regulation shorts (pictured)
In doing so, they risked a fine of 50 euros per player per match according to Norway’s Katinka Haltvik, quoted by public broadcaster NRK.
‘Of course we would pay any fine,’ Norwegian Handball Federation president Kare Geir Lio told AFP on Monday. ‘We are all in the same boat,’ he added.
The issue has been debated in beach sports circles for several years as some players find the bikini degrading or simply impractical.
Ahead of the European Championship, Norway approached the European Handball Federation to ask for permission to play in shorts, but were told that breaches of the rules were punishable by fines.
‘The most important thing is to have equipment that athletes are comfortable with,’ Lio said, adding that ‘it should be a free choice within a standardised framework.’
The European Handball Federation said it was aware of the episode but had not yet decided on whether to sanction Norway.
By ditching the regulation bikini bottoms, the Norwegian women’s team (pictured in 2017 wearing bikini bottoms) risked a fine of 50 euros per player per match
Pictured: Norway’s beach handball team compete in 2017 in regulation clothing. The issue has been debated in beach sports circles for several years as some players find the bikini degrading or simply impractical
A Norwegian motion to amend the current rules will be discussed by the bodies in the coming months.
‘The EHF is committed to bring this topic forward in the interest of its member federations, however it must also be said that a change of the rules can only happen at IHF level,’ EHF spokesman Andrew Barringer said in an email.
In a reverse of the situation earlier this year, German beach volleyball stars Karla Borger and Julia Sude said they would boycott a tournament in Qatar, saying it is ‘the only country’ where players are forbidden from wearing bikinis on court.
‘We are there to do our job, but we are being prevented from wearing our work clothes,’ Borger told a radio station at the time.
‘This is really the only country and the only tournament where a government tells us how to do our job – we are criticising that.’
The Middle Eastern country hosted the FIVB World Tour event, but strict rules about on-court clothing had led to world championships silver medallist Borger and her doubles partner Sude shunning the event.
In a reverse of the situation earlier this year, German beach volleyball stars Karla Borger and Julia Sude (pictured) said they would boycott a tournament in Qatar, saying it is ‘the only country’ where players are forbidden from wearing bikinis on court
But in a major U-Turn, the Qatar Volleyball Association (QVA) said there would be ‘no restrictions’ on players wearing bikinis.
Female players had been asked to wear shirts and long trousers rather than the usual bikinis, a rule which the world beach volleyball federation FIVB said is ‘out of respect for the culture and traditions of the host country’.
Qatar is a conservative Islamic country in which women are expected to dress conservatively, however the large numbers of foreign workers and bids to boost tourism means adherence is somewhat patchy.