Team GB swimmers 'trolled for our small bums and boobs'

Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe spend 40 hours in the pool together every week - mostly underwater

Many of us would love to look more athletic - but for Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe, their physiques as pro synchronised swimmers have led to them being trolled and bullied.

Kate 19, and Izzy, 20, who will represent Team GB for Artistic Swimming at Tokyo 2020, describe themselves as having "big shoulders, small boobs and small bums".

Their bodies have been honed over 10 years of vigorous training including speed swimming, weightlifting, dance and gymnastics.

They say they've often been called "manly" or "too muscular".

"Swimmers tend to get big shoulders and when I was younger I would wear things to cover my shoulders - baggy clothing that would make them less noticeable," says Izzy.

"If I was posting pictures on social media I would try to crop them out of pictures, or try and make them look less prominent to avoid getting negative comments."

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The body-shaming happened at school but also while training.

"People come up at the public swimming pool and say: 'Can you cover yourself up please?'" says Kate.

"We only wear one-piece costumes that are the same as everyone else but because we have an athletic figure, the costume naturally sits higher on your hips."

"It's ridiculous because boys can be walking around in Speedos and that's fine, but if girls show any skin, then they're accused of parading their bodies," she adds.

Kate and Izzy say they've learned to live with the negative comments and embrace how they look.

"You don't have a big bum, you don't have a big chest but we do the sport for the love of it," Kate tells Radio 1 Newsbeat.

"When you're training 40 hours a week you're naturally not going to have that body type."

Izzy adds: "You're doing the sport for the sport, not to look a certain way."

The pair, who are both from Bristol, are now involved in a beauty campaign involving an arty underwater photo shoot for the UK lingerie brand, Bluebella.

The swimmers acknowledge some may question whether an underwear photo shoot champions female empowerment.

But they say they did it because they don't want any woman or girl to be ashamed of their bodies.

"We've gone through trolling and now we're proud that we can take pictures in slightly more revealing clothes," says Kate.

"Body image [concerns] are not just reserved for people who don't think they're skinny enough, it's also for people who think they're too athletic, too big, too small.

"We're proud to be where we are today and happy and confident in our bodies."

They want to help encourage women and girls to tackle the number who quit sport because of body confidence.

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More men do sport and physical activity than women across all age groups, recent research suggests.

And among 14-16 year old girls, 35% say the reason they don't take part is a lack of confidence.

National campaigns are trying to tackle the issue - for example, Sport England's #thisgirlcan aims to break the taboos around looking sweaty or strong.

The pair got into synchronised swimming at primary school, because their mums used to swim together

Izzy and Kate are no longer deterred by their body shamers and are focusing entirely on heading out to Japan.

Officials ruled this week that there'll be almost no fans at all and no mixing between teams because of Covid rules - but that's not changed Izzy and Kate's excitement.

"We're just so happy to be going to the Olympic games, it's been our dream, and nothing's going to stop us," says Izzy.

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