Why are race bibs still used?

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Anyone who participates in running or athletic competitions of various kinds has happened to receive and wear a race bib, with a number on it and sometimes even their name or surname. Bibs are a constant in many sports, from a non-competitive run of a few kilometers to the marathon or the 100m Olympic final. And in general, apart from some foresight and evolution, the bibs used are very similar to each other, for several years now. Just as the system used by male and female athletes to fix them on their uniforms is the same, even at the Olympics: safety pins, simple but effective. Wearing a number is for many part of the rituals of a race, and sometimes the pins and bibs with numbers also become a metaphor for competing or for stopping.

Pectorals (which are sometimes placed above the chest and others lower down) and lats (which are placed on the back instead) dealt recently the New York Timeswondering why they continue to be used with pins and why there are those who argue that it is time to abandon both, at least at certain levels.

The bibs, made of paper or non-woven fabric, have practical purposes: they are used to identify by name, number or code participants in an event, as well as providing each of them with a small instrument (placed inside the race bib) to measure times thanks to radio frequencies. At the highest levels these tools can also provide data on the distance between athletes, their speed during the event or their heart rate. For those who play sports, bibs can also be precious reminders of a race and, in some cases, useful for fans to recognize and cheer on the wearer by name.

In addition to the practical issues of tracking and identifying the participants, the bibs also have a promotional function, both at small city races and at more important events: for a sponsor they are a means of ending up on the bodies of thousands of athletes (in the case, for example, of a marathon) or even displayed on the body of the Olympic 100m champion (perhaps sponsored by a competing company).

In early May in Doha, Qatar, at the first event of the Diamond League – the main series of international athletics events – the athletes were asked, for commercial reasons, to wear their race bibs even at the press conference.

It was in reaction to this request that on May 5, former US sprinter Michael Johnson – winner of four Olympic gold medals and 17-year world record holder over 400 meters – he had complained of the fact that athletes were now «human advertising posters». Always Johnson told the New York Times: «The best and fastest athletes in the world are competing with a piece of paper and pins, it smacks of amateurism».

(Ker Robertson/Getty Images)

In fact, at least at the highest levels, where every little detail is aimed at improving performance, bibs, bibs and pins seem inadequate and old-fashioned. Even more so if we consider that in some cases, again for sponsor reasons, they have also increased in size in recent years.

The possible alternatives are the use of race clothing with small spaces for the equally small and light instruments used to measure the times; or, wrote the New York Times, the use of special bracelets to be worn by each athlete. Certainly, in any case, there seem to be possible solutions, but they should provide for a general uniformity of approach, which is not in the interests of many sponsors or even of those who produce, distribute and sell bibs and bibs.

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