And this year’s athletes were able to have a say in GK Elite’s 2024 designs.
“They overwhelmingly, unanimously told us that for the Olympics, they want to wear red, white and blue,” the company’s design director Jeanne Diaz told NBC News, recalling communications with the gymnasts. “The more crystals, the better.”
This isn’t the first time team USA brought some bedazzle to the competition floor. At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, the American gymnasts wore leotards with 6,400 crystals, The New York Times reported.
In order to get used to the slightly greater weight, Lee said she warms up in her competition leotard. “I am obsessed with how the lights of the arena reflect off the crystals,” she told The New York Times in comments published July 10. “I am always telling GK I need more.”
This year, Team USA’s gymnastics uniforms also feature pearls for the first time, with 970 of them joining the almost 3,500 crystals adorning the white Freedom’s Grace Competition leotard, which was inspired by couture runway gowns.
Lee added, “I keep thinking about which one I’ll want to wear, when.”
Read on to see many of Team USA’s 2024 Olympic uniforms…
