The Sports Network (Canada) has come up with a list of the Top Ten sexiest male and female athletes. For all its superficial value, here it is, in ascending order for dramatic effect:

10. Natalie Gulbis, golf (never even heard of her myself, shows you how much I follow golf)
9. Andy Roddick, tennis (I guess there are two A-Rods?!)
8. Jamie Sale, figure skating (but her Olympic partner David Pelletier was even cuter!)
7. Jose Theodore, Montreal Canadiens (cute under all that goalie equipment, but I don't think I want to meet his family wink )
6. Jennie Finch, tennis
5. Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees ( the A-Rod, WOOF!)
4. Serena Williams, tennis (again!)
3. Tom Brady, New England Patriots (nice, but several other NFL/CFL players come to mind before him)
2. Maria Sharapova, tennis (I would say tennis is very well-represented on this list)

And the #1 Top Sexiest Athlete is (drum roll, please)....




No, actually Smarty didn't quite make the final cut The winner was David Beckham.

[ August 04, 2004, 10:39 PM: Message edited by: Marc ]

Jennie Finch is a softball player, and Kournikova is MUCH more attractive than Sharapova.

Yeah, but most of the people on that list are, well, good at the sports they play.....

Right you are, Jennie Finch is indeed a softball player, so I guess that means there are 'only' three tennis players on the list now. I reviewed the videotape of the list, and it was mentioned that Ms. Finch is engaged to Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Casey Daigle.

Since this list was compiled by the Sports Network (Canada), isn't it surprising that so few of the athletes are Canadian? I wonder about Tom Brady--handsome though he is, if he weren't the QB on a team that won two Super Bowls would he still be included on this list?

Like Marc (and I do like Marc) I'm not a follower of women's golf--can identify just Annika, Michelle, and a couple of others--but when Playboy asked its readers which female golfer they most wanted to see pose in the magazine, Jill McGill (I think that's her name) was the run-away winner. Thus, surprised she didn't make the list.

~Adam

[ August 05, 2004, 09:40 AM: Message edited by: Adam ]

The feeling is mutual, Adam. I'll propose two theories as to why only two Canadian athletes made it to The List:

(1) TSN has an inferiority complex about our home-grown jocks and thinks they just aren't sexy enough. I will be challenging this perception in a letter to the network. There are enough hockey players alone who could easily fill that list, not to mention a number of curlers, bobsledders, and lacrosse players of both genders! Football and baseball players too, although I'm afraid Eric Gagne might not meet the criteria.

(2) TSN is trying to show how inclusive and international it is, so as not to be accused of being biased 'homers'. I'm sure all of you would agree that any of the US networks would be as equally unbiased by choosing eight non-Americans in their top ten sexiest athletes list?

[ August 05, 2004, 10:30 PM: Message edited by: Marc ]