Yes, breasts move, and it is nothing to be embarrassed about.” If we can educate girls at a young age about breast support and bra fit, we can normalise discussions about breasts. “People think they have to live with breast pain or excessive movement but there are things you can do to reduce it. “For other women, it is the psychological aspects of what other people think of your boobs bouncing while you are exercising, particularly for adolescent girls – they are concerned about what boys think of their breasts in PE and this means they don’t participate. “Women are not satisfied with the bra designs on the market and are still experiencing pain or chafing and various other issues. Studies have reported that women with larger breasts are spending 37 per cent less time exercising than their friends with smaller breasts.Īs more teenage girls are dropping out of sport, 46 per cent of them report seeing their breasts as an obstacle, making it the fourth-biggest barrier overall.ĭr Nicola Brown, a researcher and associate professor in female health at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, is concerned that lack of education around this issue is preventing women and girls from being active. She represented Great Britain at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games last summer and was fitted with a bespoke sports bra to maximise her performance, shifting the distribution of her breast tissue away from where the rifle sat.īut while elite sportswomen are slowly navigating this subject, at grass-roots level the ramifications for women and young girls are devastating. Paralympic shooter Lorraine Lambert spent years worrying that her large breasts would be the cause of disqualification if they touched her rifle. Halep, who went on to win the French Open in 2018 and Wimbledon in 2019, has since reflected that the physical and mental benefits of the surgery were invaluable. Simona Halep, the 30-year-old Romanian who crashed out of the semi-finals at Wimbledon last month, famously underwent breast reduction surgery aged 17, reducing her breast size from a 34DD to 34C to improve her performance. While growing up in Selkirk she struggled to vocalise the challenges she was facing as a teenager, and it has no doubt helped to have some high-profile sportswomen sharing their own stories in this field. Robertson is not alone in her struggle to perform at an elite level in a world where there has been little female-specific research on sport performance, particularly on the topic of breasts. “I think the mental effect of that as well is so important.” “Going out and playing at something like the Olympic Games or Commonwealth Games, it is on TV, there are lots of people watching you, so you need to feel comfortable and supported in what you’re wearing,” says Robertson. Then, of course, there is the psychological impact. Researchers have found that breasts can move up to 15 centimetres during exercise, and studies say that women not wearing an effective sports bra can lose up to four centimetres in stride length over the course of a marathon.
“We did an education session before the Olympics and it was amazing how many girls didn’t know the general rules about what bra you should be wearing for such a high-impact sport like hockey,” says the Scotland captain, who has more than 100 caps for her country.
Last summer, as part of Team GB’s hockey squad gathered ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, the 28-year-old pushed for the subject of breasts to be on the team meeting agenda.įor the midfielder, who as a young athlete had struggled to find the correct bra to support a larger chest, the discussion produced a stark moment of realisation – how little her team-mates knew about their own bodies. It is a taboo that has endured for far too long, a fact that Scotland hockey captain, Sarah Robertson, who has been competing at the Commonwealth Games this week, knows more than most.
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