The Islamic man is supposed to cover himself from navel to knee and may prefer to cover his chest as well. He must also avoid tight clothing. It seems as if there will be few orthodox Muslims in performance swimming.
I have noticed a trend among Asian men to swim in tee shirt and baggy knee length shorts.
In the early 20th century Britain developed the concept of Muscular Christianity, the Christian soldier should he mentally, physically and spiritually healthy and set an example to the world. This is the story behind Eric Liddell and Chariots of Fire.
The private and state school systems plus many voluntary youth organisations accepted the concept of muscular Christianity and mixed education, sport and worship. As sport became more competitive sports clothing became briefer and sometimes tighter, and after sport showers were considered healthy hygiene, all this was accepted as good muscular Christianity.
In the 21st century many homophobic Christian groups have connected wearing brief/tight clothing and taking public showers with child protection issues, maintaining that those that encourage young people to take part in sports that require performance clothing are corrupting them. The result has been long baggy shorts, fat children with reduced life expectancy and rickets.
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