All-White Attire Rule Lifted at Wimbledon to Embrace 2012 Olympics
May 16, 2012 | By Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
Wimbledon’s all-white dress code won’t be in effect for the Olympics. The usual green backdrop surrounding the courts will also be gone. Venus Williams is embracing the opportunity allowing her to wear something other than white. She has won three gold medals in past Olympics. "It’s the Olympics and so at that point it won’t be Wimbledon, so that’s what makes it different," Williams said. "We’ll be wearing team colors. Red, white and blue all the way—and hopefully gold.
"The look will be the look of the games. There will be more color. It will be a special Wimbledon," International Tennis Federation president Francesco Ricci Bitti told The Associated Press. "The rule for clothing will be the rule for the Olympics, so there will be much more color in terms of what the players wear, too.
Venus won gold at both the singles and doubles with her sister, Serena, at the 2000 Sydney games and then went on and won the doubles in 2008 in Beijing. She can now add three more with the addition of mixed doubles at the 2012 games.
