Every time the Olympics roll around, some of the toned, horny athletes get nakey for one publication or another. This year, People talked to snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis and alpine skier Lindsey Vonn about taking it off. Jacobellis says, “I get way too many little girls who are crazy about snowboarding coming up to me, asking for autographs and advice, and I want to stay a strong role model for them.” Meanwhile, Vonn was one of the four Olympians who posed for this month’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue (above) and said, “I talked about it with my husband, and I looked at what other athletes had done in the past, I’m trying as best as I can to promote our sport and make it mainstream.” I don’t blame hot-bodied athletes for taking it off—I’d be naked all the time if I looked like some of them—but saying you’re getting naked to make alpine skiing more mainstream is some major BS.
Then again, the original Olympians performed naked, so what’s the big deal now? Plus, Vonn is in pretty good company with a long line of Olympians who’ve shed at least most of their clothes for photo shoots. Here’s a sampling.
Source: NBC Chicago
Alpine skier Alain Baxter must have had the same idea about making the sport mainstream because he got naked for a calender he produced. He had an equally weak explanation. “It was my wife’s idea,” he said. “You have to go out and try and sell yourself. With what’s going on in the world right now it’s really hard for everybody to get by, not just sports-people. Plus, I’ve also got family, and two kids to think about.” [AlainBaxter.Com]
Source: Mpora
British skier Gregor Tait took it off for Powerade advertisements shot by photographer Nadav Kander. It’s nice to see that male Olympians are willing to share their adorable behinds with us. [Sky News]
Source: Team GB
U.S. Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard has taken every opportunity to get naked, posing in Playboy, FHM and for PETA. Which is pretty unsurprising since she’s also a model and her husband’s a photographer. [Faniq]
Source: Arizona Wildcats
U.S. Olympic snowboarder Hannah Teter got a gold medal in the 2006 half pipe competition and is featured in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. But more importantly, she’s got her own Ben & Jerry’s flavor called Hannah Teter’s Maple Blondie. So jealous! [Sports Illustrated]
Source: Tahoe Quarterly
British triple jumper Phillips Idowu also went the Powerade commercial route, which somehow managed to be so much classier than the Olympic ladies who took it off for trashy men’s magazines. [Sky News]
Source: FosterClub
2004 Summer Olympics jumper Ineta Radeviča competed for Latvia, placing 13th in the triple jump and 20th in the long jump. But people seemed to care more about the fact that she posed for Playboy … which kinda sucks for her maybe?
Source: Sportacentrs.com
Twenty-two-year-old Colorado Olympic snowboarder Clair Bidez took some of it off for this winter’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. She looks cold. [Sports Illustrated]
Source: Sports Illustrated
In 2004, U.S. high jumper Amy Acuff posed in both FHM and Playboy. And not only is she an extremely talented athlete, she also gets to look like Christie Brinkley and works as a model and is a licensed acupuncturist because apparently she did something super nice in a former life. [2008 Beijing Olympics]
Source: AthleteBiz
U.S. Olympic aerial skier Lacy Schnoor from Salt Lake City joined the ladies in the Swimsuit Illustrated swimsuit issue. [Sports Illustrated]
Source: YouTube
Original by: Amelia McDonell-Parry
