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50 Folks, 4 Years, 10,000 Swarovski Crystals: How Group USA’s Gymnastics Leotards Get Made

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Gymnastics—like diving and determine skating—is an Olympic sport the place artistry and aesthetics are intertwined with athleticism. As Simone Biles and her teammates catapult and contort their our bodies this month in Paris, they’ll be doing so in leotards embellished with roughly 10,000 diamond-shaped Swarovski crystals. (That’s almost 2,000 greater than Group USA wore again in Tokyo in 2021.) Carrying the uniforms to compete is the final step in a course of that took 4 years and greater than 50 individuals to finish.

“Once I opened up the Olympic leotards, my first thought was that they have been completely gorgeous,” Jade Carey, an Olympic gold medalist and 2024 Paris Group USA gymnast, tells SELF. Carey, Biles, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee, and Hezley Rivera, unboxed their new leotards, which have been made by gymnastics attire firm GK Elite, earlier this month. “They’re filled with crystals, tremendous patriotic, and actually stunning,” Carey says. “I am unable to wait to see how they shine below the lights within the enviornment.”

GK Elite

For Jeanne Diaz, GK Elite’s director of design, and Erica Schnebel, the corporate’s director of promoting, it was a strong second. “I am getting chills nonetheless interested by it,” Schnebel tells SELF. “As they began opening it, I’m watching their faces, I’m watching their reactions, and I believe, outdoors of their pleasure, one factor that struck me was Jeanne’s response—I seemed over and she or he’s bawling blissful tears as a result of that’s her work coming to life,” Schnebel says. “It is a workforce of athletes we all know very well and couldn’t have been prouder of every of them.”

make a leotard with 10,000 crystals for the perfect gymnasts on this planet

Diaz notes that every leotard is crafted, firstly, with performance in thoughts, which begins with intel from the specialists themselves. She says that GK Elite polls USA Gymnastics members on what options—from necklines to materials to the quantity of glitz—they’ve most loved, or maybe disliked, in earlier uniforms. Nonetheless, as Diaz says, there aren’t normally many surprises. That’s as a result of the corporate has suited up Olympic gymnasts since 1996, so after nearly three a long time, they’ve a reasonably good concept of what works and what doesn’t.

Image of a Team USA Leotard

GK Elite

Upclose image of crystals on Team USA Leotard

GK Elite

One other manner to make sure the leotards assist, moderately than hinder, efficiency? They’re every custom-made. “We make a leotard for each athlete that was competing on the Olympic trials, and we’ve all their sizing forward of time,” Diaz explains, including that every garment is laser-cut for tremendous exact measurements. (Principally, they’re meant to really feel like a second pores and skin.)

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50 Folks, 4 Years, 10,000 Swarovski Crystals: How Group USA’s Gymnastics Leotards Get Made

spot_img


Gymnastics—like diving and determine skating—is an Olympic sport the place artistry and aesthetics are intertwined with athleticism. As Simone Biles and her teammates catapult and contort their our bodies this month in Paris, they’ll be doing so in leotards embellished with roughly 10,000 diamond-shaped Swarovski crystals. (That’s almost 2,000 greater than Group USA wore again in Tokyo in 2021.) Carrying the uniforms to compete is the final step in a course of that took 4 years and greater than 50 individuals to finish.

“Once I opened up the Olympic leotards, my first thought was that they have been completely gorgeous,” Jade Carey, an Olympic gold medalist and 2024 Paris Group USA gymnast, tells SELF. Carey, Biles, Jordan Chiles, Sunisa Lee, and Hezley Rivera, unboxed their new leotards, which have been made by gymnastics attire firm GK Elite, earlier this month. “They’re filled with crystals, tremendous patriotic, and actually stunning,” Carey says. “I am unable to wait to see how they shine below the lights within the enviornment.”

GK Elite

For Jeanne Diaz, GK Elite’s director of design, and Erica Schnebel, the corporate’s director of promoting, it was a strong second. “I am getting chills nonetheless interested by it,” Schnebel tells SELF. “As they began opening it, I’m watching their faces, I’m watching their reactions, and I believe, outdoors of their pleasure, one factor that struck me was Jeanne’s response—I seemed over and she or he’s bawling blissful tears as a result of that’s her work coming to life,” Schnebel says. “It is a workforce of athletes we all know very well and couldn’t have been prouder of every of them.”

make a leotard with 10,000 crystals for the perfect gymnasts on this planet

Diaz notes that every leotard is crafted, firstly, with performance in thoughts, which begins with intel from the specialists themselves. She says that GK Elite polls USA Gymnastics members on what options—from necklines to materials to the quantity of glitz—they’ve most loved, or maybe disliked, in earlier uniforms. Nonetheless, as Diaz says, there aren’t normally many surprises. That’s as a result of the corporate has suited up Olympic gymnasts since 1996, so after nearly three a long time, they’ve a reasonably good concept of what works and what doesn’t.

Image of a Team USA Leotard

GK Elite

Upclose image of crystals on Team USA Leotard

GK Elite

One other manner to make sure the leotards assist, moderately than hinder, efficiency? They’re every custom-made. “We make a leotard for each athlete that was competing on the Olympic trials, and we’ve all their sizing forward of time,” Diaz explains, including that every garment is laser-cut for tremendous exact measurements. (Principally, they’re meant to really feel like a second pores and skin.)

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Stay in touch

To be updated with all the latest news, offers and special announcements.