Robles: I’m all woman

Just because Sarah Robles competes in a sport dominated by men, it doesn’t mean she wants to look like one.

But at 5-foot-10 and 270lbs, America’s top-ranked weightlifter says she mostly wears workout clothes made for men because women’s athletic attire rarely comes in her size.

“I’m wearing a dude’s jacket right now. And a dude’s shirt. Dude’s sandals. A dude’s hat. I’ve got a dude’s watch. I’ve got a dude’s everything,” Robles said during a training session in London this week with coach Joe Micela.

Robles, a 24-year-old Californian who trains in Arizona, says the Olympics also give her a forum to encourage the fashion industry to make a greater variety of athletic clothes for plus-sized women.

Robles said one of the misconceptions about weightlifting is that the sport will make women “look like a man or become a man somehow.”

“And that’s completely wrong. I think being strong and confident and doing what you love makes you more feminine because you are not afraid to be yourself,” she said.

Meanwhile, British long-jumper Jade Johnson was famously allergic to sand, and now the Olympics has thrown up a swimmer who fears she may have developed a water allergy.

Russian Iuliia Efimova, who raced to bronze in the 200 metres breaststroke on Thursday night and followed up this yesterday by helping her country reach the 4x100m medley final, is the unfortunate star.

She explained how all of a sudden she came out in rashes.

“Everything was swollen. My legs, my arms, ears, lips. Everything was red and itchy. I was really afraid,” she said.

But the cause? “I don’t know, maybe water,” she said. “When I got here I got some injection that did not help but then needed permission for an injection which is kind of banned. Everything was done and the next day everything was fine.”