As debate continues regarding marketing the sex appeal
of female athletes, the current issue of the men's magazine
MAXIM runs a pictorial entitled "The Gold Standard,"
featuring women of the U.S. Summer Olympic team in
provocative poses and outfits. The subhead reads, "There's
nothing hotter than watching a beautiful woman finish first.
Behold the fastest, strongest, and sexiest Olympic athletes
on the planet." The athletes featured are synchronized
swimmers Kristina Lum and Heather Olson, pole vaulters Jill
Wittenwyler and Mary Sauer, runner Nnenna Lynch, swimmers
Ashley Tappin and Dara Torres and high jumper Amy Acuff.
Wittenwyler, who "worked as a body double for Daryl Hannah"
in an upcoming movie, said, "There's nothing wrong with
promoting sports through sex appeal. Let's face it: Sex
sells, and the women of track and field are definitely
sexy." Tappin, who had a "thriving modeling career," added,
"It's every girl's fantasy to be a sex symbol." Acuff, the
"mastermind behind" the TrackGirls 2000 calendar, in which
12 athletes "posed in the buff for charity," said the
calendar "was a natural union because there are so many
incredible bodies in track and field." Additionally, Sauer
has "no problem with athletes using their bodies to attract
attention to their sport." Sauer: "Models and movie stars
just don't look like normal women, so it's great we're being
recognized for something other than being six feet tall and
ultra-waif-thin." Sauer added "most" of her pole vaulting
teammates "love to party. We have a lot of crazy girls."
But Lum said, "I can't really imagine myself as a sex
symbol. We're just swimmers and athletes" (MAXIM, 9/2000).
GREAT DEBATE: In Chicago, Ron Rapoport writes "just as
interesting" as pictures such as Jenny Thompson's topless
photo in SI is the "debate it has engendered in the feminist
community. ... These are women devoted to the advancement of
women in society and ready to pounce on the first signs of
exploitation or discrimination. And their points of view
couldn't be more different" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 8/23).
