Why Olympic Divers And Others Are Covered In Body Tape

• News
  • Home Page
  • California
  • Election 2024
  • Housing & Homelessness
  • Politics
  • Science & Medicine
  • World & Nation
• Business
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Autos
  • Jobs, Labor & Workplace
  • Real Estate
  • Technology and the Internet
• California
  • California Politics
  • Earthquakes
  • Education
  • Housing & Homelessness
  • L.A. Influential
  • L.A. Politics
  • Mental Health
• Climate & Environment
  • Climate Change
  • Water & Drought
• Entertainment & Arts
  • Arts
  • Books
  • Stand-Up Comedy
  • Hollywood Inc.
  • The Envelope (Awards)
  • Movies
  • Music
  • Television
  • Things to Do
• De Los
• En Español
• Food
  • 101 Best Restaurants in L.A.
  • Recipes
• Image
  • Art & Culture
  • Conversations
  • Drip Index: Event Guides
  • Fashion
  • Shopping Guides
  • Styling Myself
• Lifestyle
  • Health & Wellness
  • Home Design
  • L.A. Affairs
  • Plants
  • Travel & Experiences
  • Weekend
  • Things to Do in L.A.
• Obituaries
• Voices
  • Editorials
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Contributors
  • Short Docs
• Sports
  • Angels
  • Angel City FC
  • Chargers
  • Clippers
  • Dodgers
  • Ducks
  • Galaxy
  • High School Sports
  • Kings
  • Lakers
  • 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics
  • USC
  • UCLA
  • Rams
  • Sparks
• World & Nation
  • Immigration & the Border
  • Israel-Hamas
  • Mexico & the Americas
  • Ukraine
• Times Everywhere
  • 404 by L.A. Times
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LA Times Today
  • Newsletters
  • Photography
  • Podcasts
  • Short Docs
  • TikTok
  • Threads
  • Video
  • YouTube
  • X (Twitter)
• For Subscribers
• eNewspaper
• All Sections
• _________________
• LA Times Studios
  • Business
  • • AI & Tech
  • • Automotive
  • • Banking & Finance
  • • Commercial Real Estate
  • • Entertainment
  • • Goods & Retail
  • • Healthcare & Science
  • • Law
  • • Sports
  • Deals & Coupons
  • Decor & Design
  • Dentists
  • Doctors & Scientists
  • Fitness
  • Hot Property
  • Live & Well
  • Orange County
  • Pets
  • The Hub: Rebuilding LA
  • Travel
  • Veterinarians
  • Weddings & Celebrations
  • Newsletters
• Live Stream
• Events
  • Screening Series
• Crossword
• Games
• L.A. Times Store
• Subscriptions
  • Manage Subscription
  • EZPAY
  • Delivery Issue
  • eNewspaper
  • Students & Educators
  • Subscribe
  • Subscriber Terms
  • Gift Subscription Terms
• About Us
  • About Us
  • Archives
  • Company News
  • eNewspaper
  • For the Record
  • Got a Tip?
  • L.A. Times Careers
  • L.A. Times Store
  • LA Times Studios Capabilities
  • News App: Apple IOS
  • News App: Google Play
  • Newsroom Directory
  • Public Affairs
  • Rights, Clearance & Permissions
  • Short Docs
• Advertising
  • Classifieds
  • Find/Post Jobs
  • Hot Property Sections
  • Local Ads Marketplace
  • L.A. Times Digital Agency
  • Media Kit: Why the L.A. Times?
  • People on the Move
  • Place an Ad
  • Place an Open House
  • Sotheby’s International Realty
• Special Supplements
  • Healthy Living
  • Higher Education
  • Philanthropy

Copyright © 2026, Los Angeles Times | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | CA Notice of Collection | Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information Advertisement 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics Why Olympic divers, volleyball players and others are covered in body tape

Switzerland’s Nina Betschart, left, and Tanja Huberli attempt to hit a ball together while playing Latvia in the bronze-medal match Friday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

By Kevin BaxterStaff Writer Follow Aug. 6, 2021 4:17 AM PT

• Share via Close extra sharing options
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • X
  • LinkedIn
  • Threads
  • Reddit
  • WhatsApp
  • Copy Link URL Copied!
  • Print

TOKYO — The Tokyo Olympics have been largely held together by COVID face masks and tape. The first is required, the second optional.

But it’s an option many athletes have obviously chosen, because tape is everywhere. On the wrists of gymnasts and rock climbers. On the thighs and shoulders of sprinters, throwers and rugby players. One Chinese diver’s body was so covered in brown tape he looked like a mummy.

“Athletes wear it for different reasons,” said Sue Falsone, an athletic trainer for 25 years who has worked with the Dodgers and the men’s national soccer team. “While the science behind it doesn’t always support its use, the bottom line is athletes feel better wearing it. There is little downside to wearing it and if it helps them mentally or physically, then I am all for it.

Advertisement

“Athletes don’t use stuff that doesn’t work. So it must do something.”

2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics

April Ross and Alix Klineman win gold for U.S. in women’s beach volleyball

April Ross and Alix Klineman won gold for the United States in beach volleyball, defeating Australia at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday.

Aug. 5, 2021

There are different kinds of tape, from the stiff white athletic tape, made of cotton, which has been around forever, to the brightly colored elastic therapeutic tape, which is made of cotton, synthetic and adhesive. Commonly known as kinesiology tape, it was pioneered by Kenzo Kase, a Japanese chiropractor, in the 1970s. Both kinds serve multiple purposes.

“The white tape the rock climbers or divers wear at their wrist is typically worn for support,” said Falsone, who now runs Structure & Function Education, an Arizona-based company that provides education in athletic training, performance and physical rehabilitation. “They feel like it gives them some stability at vulnerable joints. While the science says that tape loosens after just a few minutes ... it gives the athlete a lot of mental support as well, knowing they have some extra support in the area.”

China’s Yuan Cao competes in men’s synchronized 10-meter platform diving July 26. (Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)

Advertisement

The stretchy, flexible therapeutic tape also has benefits in the areas of self-movement and body position. It provides sensory input to an injured or sensitive area as well. And because it’s elastic, it allows for a full range of motion, unlike traditional athletic tape.

“Some [athletes] will say if you put it on the muscle one way it can facilitate a muscle to make it work better,” Falsone said. “If you put it on the opposite way it can make the muscle relax. All of this has been debunked in the literature, but people have their theories and stick with it.

“What we do know is this tape is highly effective for pain control. Study after study shows this tape works well for that.”

Anne Tuxen of Team Norway competes in the women’s 10-meter platform prelims on Wednesday. (Al Bello / Getty Images)

My experience is if it’s going to help an athlete, even if it’s a little bit of a placebo, I’m going to do it.

— Cesar Roldan, L.A. Galaxy team trainer

Former world-record-holder Dotsie Bausch was 40 when she won a silver medal in track cycling in the 2012 London Games. She said she used kinesiology tape not just for training and competition, but to relieve pain and tightness after long plane flights and to help with sciatica.

Advertisement

“I always had pain and since I always [trained] hard, I lived on ibuprofen,” said Bausch, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Switch4Good. Using the tape lessened her dependence on painkillers.

Galaxy trainer Cesar Roldan said elastic therapeutic tape has become ubiquitous in soccer. And it works best when athletes forget they’re wearing it.

“Your body never forgets that the tape’s on there. So it continuously sends signals to that muscle to keep it firing,” he said. “A lot of times we put tape on someone that’s coming back from a hamstring strain to facilitate that muscular activation, while they’re training or playing.”

Therapeutic tape can also enhance circulation and reduce swelling in joints.

2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics

U.S. men’s track team on road to be shut out of gold medals

The U.S. men’s 400-meter relay team fails to make finals. But in field events, Ryan Crouser wins the shot put, and Katie Nageotte wins in pole vault.

Aug. 5, 2021

“There are little convolutions in the tape that help to lift the skin,” Falsone said. “So you have skin, a layer of fat and then muscle. In the fat, blood vessels are there. If we lift the skin, the circulation improves. This helps with decreasing swelling.”

In other cases, it’s little more than a placebo. But even that can improve performance, says Roldan.

“There isn’t a lot of definitive research over these things,” he said. “My experience is if it’s going to help an athlete, even if it’s a little bit of a placebo, I’m going to do it.”

Advertisement

Kase, who developed kinesiology tape, was looking for an alternative to stiff athletic tape, something that would mimic the elasticity of human skin. The first athletes to test Kase’s tape were Japanese sumo wrestlers, but he has also documented its effectiveness on dogs and horses and has even taped tree limbs, fruit, flamingos and fish.

Therapeutic tape didn’t really become mainstream until the 2008 Olympics, a popularity fueled in part by beach volleyball player Kerri Walsh, who won a gold medal with a complex spider-web pattern of tape, provided by Kase, on her surgically repaired right shoulder.

Tokyo Olympics Coverage

• 2020 Tokyo Olympics: Complete coverage from 29th Summer Games
• Tokyo Olympics: Medal count, schedule and results for all 613 American athletes
• Tokyo Olympics preview: Your guide to the Games

Complete Olympics Coverage

Intrigued by Walsh’s performance, entrepreneurs bought the rights to take elastic therapeutic out of the clinic and offer it directly to consumers, founding KT Tape, a Utah-based company.

“Every time there is an Olympics, we see a significant boost in consumer usage. And the visibility on athletes,” said Greg Venner, KT Tape’s president and CEO.

The company works with several national governing bodies in winter and summer Olympic disciplines and has provided custom-designed supplies to about 15 countries, including the U.S., Canada, Germany and Japan, printing their three-letter IOC abbreviation in the tape.

“These are people, athletes, who believe in our product, have used it before, and it is authentic usage with a broad extent of athletes at the Olympics,” Venner said. “That’s really not by chance.”

2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics

Get the latest on L.A.'s teams in the daily Sports Report newsletter.

By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy.

Enter email address Agree & Continue Kevin Baxter

Follow Us

• X
• Email
• Bluesky

Kevin Baxter writes about soccer and hockey for the Los Angeles Times. He has covered seven World Cups, five Olympic Games, six World Series and a Super Bowl and has contributed to three Pulitzer Prize-winning series at The Times and Miami Herald. An essay he wrote in fifth grade was voted best in the class. He has a cool dog.

More From the Los Angeles Times

• 

  2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics

  The power of teamwork: Inside U.S. figure skating’s new Olympic golden age

• 

  2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics

  IOC continues to have ‘full trust’ in Casey Wasserman and L.A. Olympic committee

• 

  2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics

  Everything you need to know about ski mountaineering, the newest Olympic sport

  Feb. 4, 2026
• 

  2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics

  U.S. curling team’s decades-long journey culminates at Milan-Cortina Olympics

  Feb. 4, 2026

Subscribers are Reading

• IOC President Kirsty Coventry calls Casey Wasserman emails, ICE in Italy sad distractions

• Alexander Skarsgård calls his latest a ‘kinky gay biker rom-com.’ It’s also the love story of the season

• Mexico reassesses Malinche: From traitor to heroine

• A hardware store with heart is a favorite in hipster L.A.

• For Subscribers

  San Diego shows what happens when a city actually lets builders build

Advertisement

Latest 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics

• 2026 Winter Olympics: Live updates, news and how to watch

• Milan-Cortina Olympics TV and streaming schedule: Thursday’s listings

  Feb. 4, 2026

• Amid protests over ICE’s presence at the Olympics, will American athletes get booed?

  Feb. 4, 2026

• This Spanish figure skater may get to skate his Minions program at the Olympics after all

  Feb. 4, 2026

• Can Lindsey Vonn compete in Olympics with torn ACL? ‘If anyone can do it, it’s Lindsey’

  Feb. 3, 2026

Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement