Why do women wear thongs for water polo?
Water polo players try to grab each other's suits to yank their
opponent out of the way or pull them underwater. To reduce that
ability, the players wear small suits so they'll be ultra-tight and
hard for their opponents to grab. On many of the players, the suits
are so small that as they play the suit pulls up into a wedgie that
looks like a thong, and they don't bother pulling out the bottom
again until they come out of the water. Actually, there's no point,
because a favorite grabbing point is the rear part of the suit. No
rear fabric= no rear grabbing point.
Because of the advantage of a thong back a few swimsuit
manufacturers now make competition suits in both full-back and
thong-back models so players can pick what type of back they like,
and all team memmbers can have the same colors. The Realise company
of Japan has even brought out a new Polo suit line made out of a
slippery, hard-to-grab material that can be ordered in wither
regular or thong back styles.