TOKYO - Female athletes have fought long and hard for the right to choose what they wear when they compete at the Olympics, and at the Tokyo Games, more and more athletes and fans are speaking out and taking action.

Of the more than 30 women who played badminton on Wednesday, including India's PV Sindhu and Taiwan's Tai Tzu Ying, about two-thirds wore shorts, while others were clad in skorts, dresses and skirts, and one wore a hijab.

"I'm lucky that we can wear whatever we want," said Sindhu, the Rio Olympics women's singles silver medalist who wore one of her blue dresses when she defeated Hong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi 21-9, 21-16.

Iran's Soraya Aghaei Hajiagha, along with her coach, wore a dress, leggings and a hijab in her match with China's He Bing Jiao. Skirts and skorts - loose-fitting shorts that look like skirts from the front - were also a popular choice among players including Belgium's Lianne Tan and Japan's Nozomi Okuhara.

On Sunday, the German women's gymnastics team wore full-body suits in qualifications, hoping to promote freedom of choice and encourage women to wear what makes them feel comfortable.

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