Olympic style: sack the scrunchie

Gymnastics — is it the sport that fashion forgot? One look at the pommel horse pack suggests that it might well be. Especially where the female contingent of the sport is concerned. What other self-respecting profession would condone such regular use of the scrunchie? You don’t see Usain Bolt sprinting for the finish line with such an atrocity entwined in his hair.

Scrunchies are, like the bubonic plague or leprosy, best left in the past where they belong. Regularly sported by the talented Beth Tweddle, right — have a good look at her when you’ve finished getting to grips with pronouncing her name — the scrunchie is gymnastics’ great style shame.

Popularised during the mid-Eighties and Nineties, when Bananarama-loving schoolgirls took the stretchy hair band to their hearts and heads, the scrunchie is indicative of an era in style during which side-ponytails and fingerless gloves were considered acceptable dressing attire.

And it’s not just Team GB who are guilty of bad taste — the whole gymnastics community is, it seems, in on the act. Also a signature of the Chinese — they favour a scrunchie of the red variety while our Beth alternates red, white and blue — and with the French team, the scrunchie is set to be a regular fixture in Greenwich over the next few days.

But what’s the alternative? A new era for gymnastics? An age of elegance in which Lycra leotards are banished in favour for bodysuits crafted from luxurious black velvet — à la Celine — and chintzy hair accessories limited to simple black elastic and crystal encrusted clasps? It certainly sounds like a more tasteful option. But truly, there’s no fun in that. Style after all, is irrelevant when you can tumble like Tweddle.