The latest in the apparently endless litany of glossy magazine photos featuring world class female athletes stripped down to a bikini or not much better hit the stands this month, in the form of Outside’s Lindsey Vonn cover issue.
Despite her cover shot’s curiously non-ski-appropriate attire, Vonn is an Olympic medalist (including a gold in the Downhill at Vancouver), multiple-time World Champion ski racer (winning both Silver and Gold medals in the Downhill and Super-G), and three-time Junior World Ski Champion. As one of the most celebrated and successful skiers in the sport today, she is regarded (as Outside’s oh-so-subtle double entendre suggests) as “the fastest woman on the planet.”
But Vonn is also female, and blond, and athletic. Which means she embodies many of the physical attributes that many men, and the media who pander to their – our – most basic instincts, find attractive.
All of which once again begs the question: what is more difficult for a world-class female athlete, becoming a champion in one’s given field, or making the cover of an outdoor and/or sports magazine – in an outfit embodying more weight than a bikini?
Read on at Free Sport …
