My mom always asks me to see what my new nail set looks like whenever I travel back home to visit my parents in my sleepy hometown.
My nails this time are covered in a baby blue hue overlaid with bright red airbrushed abstract cherries. I typically love an almond-shaped nail with pretty minimal feminine and delicate detailing. I hold my soft, unburdened by-labor hands out to hers, which have weathered the experiences of cuts, burns and age.
She always says, “They’re so pretty!” Then she’ll ask how much it costs as I wince in pain thinking about my bank account. In return, she will show me the new gel nail set her local nail tech did on her too. Nails have always been how we’ve bonded.
Nails have always been how we’ve bonded.
Her natural nails used to be long, strong and doll-like just like how mine are now. This was before she owned a restaurant and cut her nails to stubs. Before that though, she’d paint them herself with different shades of drug store nail polish from red, green, blue and sometimes even do French tips. I’d watch her in awe, slowly processing and learning what it meant to be my mother’s version of a woman.
A part of that self-expression is represented in Olympians like Sha’Carri Richardson, Jordan Chiles and Noah Lyles. Medals aren’t the only decorations Olympians have been showing off this 2024 Paris Games. Richardson is known for her inches-long theatrical red, white and blue press on nail sets. During her women’s 4×100-meter gold medal win on Friday, the athlete had the words “I’m not back. I’m better,” scrawled in her handwriting on her nails. The nail set featured gaudy silver sequins, red gems and gold hamsa hands on each nail. One nail even sported the Olympic rings.
This wasn’t even Richardson’s only set of nails this Olympics. Richardson, who is known for her exuberantly colored wigs, elaborate nails and false eyelashes, pushes boundaries with her bold aesthetics and she knows it. She has changed her nails two other times during the Paris Games. Her first set sported a very patriotic ode to Team USA with red, white and blue polish and gems galore. The other set was a sharp stiletto shape with bright splatters of neon-colored gems like lime green (Brat summer, anyone?), hot pink, sunset orange and a black base.
Meanwhile, during Chiles’ Olympic performance, the gymnast showed off square-shaped, airbrushed blue and red snakeskin tips, which were separated by a wavy gold line to play with symmetry. And when it comes to Lyles’ nails, he kept it funky and fresh too. The gold medal sprinter also showed patriotic support for the U.S. with white stars behind a blue base on a few of his nails. From long acrylic USA nails, short nails with Olympic rings on them, or just funky abstract gel nail art — all of these designs have created extra eye-catching drama beyond the sports.
However, with lengthy and slightly absurd nails like Richardson and Chiles, it’s easy for people to question how these elite athletes are perform. Most people would cut down their nails or choose to simply keep it natural if they’re particularly active (like a competitive gymnast or sprinter) just like my former chef mom did. This makes sense.
Richardson has previously been critiqued for having her nails slow her running time. People online have called her nails “gross” and have told Richardson, “Remove the noise, remove the fake nails, focus and let your racing do the talking.”
In 2019, Richardson said in response to the criticism, “I didn’t know the weight of my hair or the length of my nails impact my legs going up & down but OKAYYYYY.” Now the sprinter’s nails are even more obnoxious and impractical. She says of her nail techs, “What they create just matches my energy and my vibe. So we’re locked in some energetic way. We’re all just locked in.” It seems to be working. Richardson is currently considered one of the fastest women in the world.
Gold medal gymnast Chiles has received similar comments with people questioning how she’s able to perform with her nails’ particular shape.
Chiles explained to The Associated Press, “A lot of people always ask me how I do gymnastics with such long nails. To tell you the truth, they actually help me with my technique. That’s really how I make sure I don’t break a nail.”
To all the naysayers who doubt these athletes’ abilities because of their long nails, I ask them to look at pioneering nail queen and sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner. Better known as Flo-Jo, she was the first Black woman to win four gold medals and even set a historic record in the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. She became the fastest woman in the world with red, white and blue two-inch square nails as an accessory. She’s also one of Richardson’s biggest inspirations – both for her speed and her style.
Florence Griffith Joyner of the United States displays her medals at the 1988 Olympic Games during a studio feature in Seoul, South Korea. (Tony Duffy/Allsport/Getty Images)
That is what nails are — an accessory to showcase a strong sense of self.
People like Chiles, Richardson and Flo-Jo allow their athleticism and nails to do the talking for them. It underestimates their talent to assume that because they want to play in fashion and design that their hard work and sometimes superhuman abilities would immediately vanish. Are athletes barred from enjoying their bodies that are so appreciated by millions across the globe? Their bodies are so attached to their performances that shouldn’t they be able to revel in exceptionalness through art? Because that is what nails are — an accessory to showcase a strong sense of self. And also, they’re just fun fashion.
For me at least, I grew up associating the image of painted, beautifully ornamental nails with a way to show people I had my life together. There a sense of relief and tranquility knowing that everything’s going to be OK because your nails are done. Whether they are flashy or subtle — people still see me. When they compliment my nails or I compliment theirs — there is a sense that we get the experience of pampering ourselves and feeling connected to a larger sense of self.
I only really started getting my nails done regularly when I turned 24. My 24th birthday fell on the week of the Barbenheimer cinematic experience. I decided it would be a birthday where I’d get a new tattoo, dye my hair blonde and get Barbie pink, square gel X nails, which is a clear nail tip that lays over your natural nail.
More than a year later, I can’t stop getting my nails done professionally. Currently, I have cherries on my nails but before this, I had yellow French tips with hibiscus flowers for the summer. Before that, I had a mermaid-inspired gel nail set that glistened like when the sun beats on tropical waters. I’ve gone through many styles and lengths and broken nails. They may be impractical for my day-to-day but they are now a part of me. While I’m not on the Olympic stage, showing my nails off to millions across the world, the visibility my nails give me with other people is an easy way to communicate and bridge our appreciation for beautiful things.
In my experience, as someone who gets a fresh set every month, this conversation about nails hindering performance is so much larger than just that. Because let me be real, sometimes I struggle to unlock my apartment door with these claws. But regardless of the learning curve attached to long nails, I love the way my nails click-clack against my keyboard as I write 100 words in a minute.
I may not be an Olympian but Richardson, Chiles and Lyles are. I think their nails make them less superhuman and more like people who truly know themselves to the core. And it shows through their long, impractical and sometimes gaudy nails.
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