Naked Lady (Athletes) Monday

Nothing like a little gratuitous muscle definition to perk up your Monday morning. EPSN’s Body Issue came out earlier this month and it featured a bunch of buff athletes in the buff (and near buff). There are many ways to describe these pictures: inspiring, motivational, drool-worthy. What I respect most, however, is the hard work that goes into every ripple, every curve, every bulge. All of this takes commitment, determination and a whole lot of sweat. Which reminds me, damn, I should really get to the gym.

[Click to embiggen, also NSFWish...but tastefully so.]

Gina Carano, mixed martial arts fighterLolo Jones, hurdlerClaire Bevilacqua, surferNatasha Kai, soccer playerSarah Reinertsen, triathleteSusan Francia, rowerMichelle Carter, shot putterBib Golic, table tennis playerNatasha Watley, Cat Osterman, Jessica Mendoza, Lauren Lappin, softball playersSerena Williams, tennis player

Show me your muscles

So, we all already knew that girls' sports were awesome. But now, according to the New York Times, girls' sports are actually lucrative. Suck it, Major League. Though, in all seriousness, anyone who has ever been to a girls' or women's sporting event can tell you that the heart these competitors play with is equal, if not greater than, any competitor in men's sports. This is because, for the most part, they aren't playing for glory or future fame or big shoe endorsements. They're playing for the unadulterated, uncomplicated, uncompromised love of the game. So, yeah, girls' sports are awesome. And the women these girl athletes grow into, sweet holy hell, they're hot.

Dara Torres I focus on her abs so much I forget she has killer arm cleavage.

Detroit ShockI'd better see him wear this during one of his pick-up games.

Serena WilliamsThose arms make me want to be a better woman.

Jelena JankovicThese too.

Natasha KaiWanna see ‘Tasha get a tattoo? Course you do.

Blanca VlasicOh my, the bendy.

Lolo JonesI think she might possibly be perfect, tiny trip and all.

My Weekend Crush

The Olympics really don't belong to the winners. Sure, they get the medals and the media, the magazine covers and the Wheaties box. They get the glory and the gold. But the Olympics really belong to the losers. After all, there are more of them. In fact, nearly everyone who comes to the Olympics leaves a loser. They won't take home any precious metal. But they're the ones who make that metal truly precious. Because it is in that depth of disappointment that we often see a person's true mettle.

In these games, few have shown us more than Lolo Jones. Her story is custom made for those soft-focus profiles with lilting soundtracks that television producers adore. She came from poverty. Her family lived in the Salvation Army basement for spell. She went through depression. She fell at the trials in 2004 and failed to make the Athens games. Still, through it all, she kept her focus. She worked minimum wage jobs. She was the first in her family to graduate from college, earning an economics degree from LSU. And, earlier this year, the girl who was once homeless went back to her high school in Des Moines and donated $3,000 to repair its track. She later gave her $4,000 prize money for winning the 2008 Olympic trials to a fund for a single mother who was a victim of the recent Iowa floods.

So in Beijing everyone expected her to win, wanted her to win the 100-meter hurdles. Through the first nine hurdles it looked like she would do just that. And then, then her right foot didn't make it over all 33-inches. She clipped the top of the penultimate hurdle, lost her balance and – in that split second – lost the gold. In fact, she lost any medal, finishing seventh. Afterward she fell to the track on her knees. No words were needed to explain her emotions. Yet, after letting it sink in that her life's work may forever go unfulfilled, she got up and walked over to the cameras. She smiled; she made no excuses. “It's hurdles,” she told the eager microphones, “and if you can't finish the race, you're not supposed to be the champion.” Everyone wants to be the champion. Still sometimes it's the losers like Lolo Jones who show us how to really win. Happy weekend, all.