Great Britain captain Hollie Pearne-Webb has hailed "a big milestone for female sport" after the International Hockey Federation made kit regulations more flexible.
Pearne-Webb and GB Hockey chief executive Nick Pink wrote to the FIH in April after feedback from GB players following England Hockey's decision to make changes to the national kit regulations.
An FIH Executive Board has now ruled that with immediate effect, female athletes are able to make individual choices to wear shorts, skorts or skirts as long as they retain the identity of the team's kit through uniformed colours and designs. Previously players all had to wear the same kit item.
"We are really pleased with today's news that we will have freedom of choice over the kit we wear in international competitions," said Pearne-Webb.
"This is a big milestone for female sport and we can all be proud that we, as well as the next generation of athletes, will have the choice for what makes them most comfortable."
England and Great Britain Hockey CEO, Nick Pink, said: "I want to thank the FIH for making this amendment to their regulations and providing female athletes the freedom of choice for what they wear in competition.
"Earlier this year we changed the rules in the domestic leagues in England to give autonomy to the individual, encouraging players to choose what they feel comfortable in, regardless of traditional hockey uniform gender norms. Under our new domestic guidelines, players have the freedom to choose to wear skorts, skirts or shorts on an individual basis, with no requirement to wear the same item as other players in the team, as long as they are the same colour.
"We're pleased to see that, through this decision by the FIH, this choice now extends to elite athletes in international competitions too. We're proud to be supporting the whole hockey community from grassroots to elite level."
