● From our sister site, TheSportsExaminer.com ●
A photo of the finish of the men’s 110 m hurdles at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary shows American stars Grant Holloway – the winner in 12.96 – and Freddie Crittenden – fourth in 13.16 – both running in U.S. uniforms.
Except they weren’t the same uniforms at all.
Sure, both had a red-and-blue striped top that said “USA” on the chest and blue bottoms. But look closer.
Holloway has a tank top and traditional athletic shorts. Crittenden has a half-zip top and compression shorts. Aren’t they supposed to be the same?
No, says Brad Birling, the USA Track & Field International Teams Manager:
“For a World Championship, every athlete gets the full training and travel uniform selection and then they get to pick out four different uniforms that they would want to compete in for their rounds, their semifinals and their finals.
“So we basically just have a list-out of ‘these are the pieces that are available,’ and we try to direct them to what pieces are designed for what disciplines, so we have pieces that are more for jumps, more for sprints, more for distance, but we really leave it up to the athletes to select what pieces are going to work for them and what works best: what’s going to give them the best opportunity for success when it comes to at least that uniform piece.
“When they go through team processing, they are able to try on pieces and everything, get the right fit to find whether or not they prefer to have a Boy Short or a Sprint Brief or a Half Tight vs. a Field Short, or whatever the case is. So they have the opportunity to try stuff on – if they want to – and we leave it up to the athletes to select what works out best for them when it comes to uniforms.”
Birling says he goes through more than 20,000 pieces of gear every year to outfit the roughly 20 teams USATF fields on an annual basis. Most of the outfitting takes place at whatever the selection meet is, like the USATF Nationals:
“We will do the best we can to kit them on-site [at the selection meet]. That way they have everything right when they leave, they have the opportunity to try stuff on, so it minimizes the issue of having to send back sizes and switch that out. The major events like where we have a selection event that decides the team, we try to get them kitted on-site and give them their stuff right then and there, so they already have it in hand.
“It all goes into a suitcase; we give them a suitcase, and backpack and whatnot.”
And that suitcase is full. Birling listed the uniform items for selection and the added items distributed to a World Championships team member this year:
Men/Uniform options for selection:
● Singlet
● Short Sleeve Race Top
● Muscle Tank
● Short Sleeve Unitard
● Tank Unitard
● Short Sleeve Throw Top
● Tank Throw Top
● Race Short
● Half Tight
● Field Short
Women/Uniform items for selection:
● Singlet
● Airborne Top
● Sprint Cover
● FK Sprint Cover
● Tank Unitard
● Short Sleeve Throw Top
● Tank Throw Top
● Race Short
● Half Tight
● Distance Brief
● Boy Short
● FK Sprint Boy Short
● Sprint Brief
● Field Short
All athletes (29-32 pieces):
● Warm Up Full Tight
● Warm Up Tee
● Long Sleeve Half Zip Top
● Podium Jacket
● Podium Pant
● Rain Jacket
● Rain Pant
● Woven Jacket
● Woven Pant
● Fleece Hoodie
● Fleece Pant
● T-Shirt (x2)
● Long Sleeve Tee
● Tank Top
● Socks (x4)
● Arm Sleeves
● Leg Sleeves
● Roller Suitcase
● Gymsack
● Backpack
● Beanie
● Rain Hat
● Aeorbill Cap
● Aerobill Visor
● Legacy 91 Cap
● Warm Up Capri Tight (women only)
● Crop Tee (women only)
● Fierce Bra (women only)
USATF is outfitted by Nike, so some of the item names reflect Nike’s nomenclature. And Nike had an idea for an additional uniform for the Worlds, just for the relay teams. Birling explained:
“Nike just kind of brought up the idea of having something different to kind of set us apart a little bit, and set the relays apart. They came up with a different design, specifically for the relay teams for the U.S. Essentially, they are the same pieces; for the men’s, for instance, it’s still a Half Tight, it’s still a Muscle Tank. They are the same material, construction, that kind of thing as the regular kit, just a different color way. Same thing with the women, the unitards and whatnot.”
The relay uniforms had a more dramatic red-white-blue motion-line scheme, as shown on the men’s and women’s 4×100 m gold-medal winners (Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images for World Athletics):
Said Birling, “All the relay uniforms are issued on-site, so I bring those. Once the rosters are named, I have the list of the relay pools, obviously the men’s and women’s 100 and 400 and then I always add a little extra in there. But I bring all the relay uniforms with me and issue those to athletes on-site, because at the end of the day, our relay coaches can still make changes up to the last minute, and that might mean a different athlete needs a different uniform and they might be a slightly different size, so I try to be prepared for that athlete to have what they need right then and there for any possible changes that happen.”
Birling, a five-year USATF veteran, also noted the uniform design cycle:
“Every four years, Nike will design a new uniform kit for us that essentially starts with each Olympic team. So, for instance, next year we have a brand new kit for the Paris team and that kit will be available only to the Olympic team during the 2024 year, and then we will transition that to all of our international teams through 2028 and the same thing will repeat again. In 2028, the Olympic team will have the new quad uniform, and so on.
“For this one, out of this assortment, I think it’s fair to say that Nike is very much a company that like to kind of push innovation and whatnot, so a lot of times, when it comes to track & field, USA tends to be kind of the testing ground for some new, innovative uniform pieces and that kind of thing.”
And there is a special moment in the uniforming program he always enjoys:
“One of the best parts of this job is when you’re at processing, and an athlete comes up for the first time to make a USA Track & Field team, and you can just see the excitement in their face and everything when you open up that suitcase and their uniform is pressed and ready to go for them to take away. Definitely a rewarding part of the job for sure.
“That’s when it hits them.”
~ Rich Perelman
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