Women’s sports kits are over-sexualised and not period proof. If this affected men, it would be fixed by now

I n my late 20s and early 30s, I was captain of the England rugby team. But as a teenager, gym knickers and leotards nearly put me off sport and exercise for good. I left school over 25 years ago now, but I can still clearly recall how awkward I felt walking across the school playing fields on my own in a pair of extremely unflattering navy blue pants, past groups of girls huddled together and laughing – I was sure – at my tree trunk legs.

At that stage, a discus was the only thing guarding my embarrassment. I was 14, and I had been persuaded to practise on my own at lunchtimes in preparation for the district games. I completely flopped at the games – standing alone, at the centre of the discus throw circle, feeling like everyone was staring at me, and feeling as though I was hardly dressed.

A quarter of a century later, it is deeply frustrating that girls are still giving up sport because of the anxiety over kit. Recent research carried out by the England hockey player Tess Howard found that sport uniforms create “identity tensions” in teenage girls, making them feel “sexualised” and causing alarming numbers to drop out. According to a 2022 World Health Organization study, 85% of adolescent girls don’t get enough exercise. Clothing is “the most underrated cause” of that, says Howard. And it’s storing up problems for the girls, and for the NHS.

I might have been among that 85%, but thank goodness I discovered rugby and its fantastic, capacious shorts. I trained hard and was good enough to represent my country, which is how, in 2005, I found myself standing in the corner of Cardiff Arms Park changing room as I waited to go out and face Wales, trying to check without anyone noticing whether my white England shorts were