The bikini has been active in a lot of online news lately, especially with the incident at STC in the Philippines. Now, with the upcoming Olympic games in just a few months, the bikini has received some new attention as rules have changed to the way attire is worn during the volleyball events.

With the Olympics involving countries that hold various (and more conservative) beliefs, the IVF / FIVB (International Volleyball Federation) announced last week that players can now wear shorts and sleeved tops. Richard Baker, a spokesperson for the FIVB told the Associated Press the following statement with regard to this motion:

“Many of these countries have religious and cultural requirements, so the uniform needed to be more flexible.”

According to The Telegraph, the modified rule allows that volleyball participants can wear the following.

• Shorts of a maximum length of three centimeters (1.18 inches) above the knee
• Sleeved or sleeveless tops

Volleyball players are still allowed to wear bikinis and the attire listed above is just an option; however, in response to this statement, well-known volleyball player Kerri Walsh exclaimed the following:

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I think it’s part of the alluring part of our sport, which is women in bikinis, but on the flip side of that, we need to be wearing bikinis. You don’t want to be wearing baggy clothes and be lost in your clothes.”

The Twitter community has been actively expressing their opinions on this change:

Do you think that viewership of the volleyball portion of the upcoming Olympics will drop because of this change? Be sure to leave your reaction to this option below in our comments section.