Amanda Beard - Olympic Swimmer Appearing in Playboy and FHM

In July 2007, we saw Amanda Beard showing her sexy body in Playboy, one of the most popular adult magazines. You can see her underwater, in the shallow pool of water and in the sand.

Before we proceed, who is Amanda Beard?

Amanda Beard is an American Olympic swimmer and model. She made her first Olympic appearance at the 1996 games at the age of 14. Now, in total, she has won two golds, four silvers and one bronze in 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympic games with an Olympic record (200-meter breaststroke, 2 minutes 23.37 seconds.)

In addition to her success in the pool, Amanda Beard was the most downloaded female athletes during a three-month period in 2004. ESPN even named her as the Hottest Female Athlete of 2005 and FHM also gave her the title of the world’s sexiest athlete on the cover in year 2006. Modeling agency has signed her up for Speedo and Red Bull advertisement and other companies eager to cash in on her image.

If Anna Kournikova is the sexy icon for tennis, Amanda Beard will be the one in swimming world. So, after posing for the magazine, just like other playmates, Amanda Beard’s Playboy photos have created buzz.

Disgrace to women athletes? Some disagree. They just think that she is hot. After all, she is a three-time Olympian.

Critics said that Amanda is the sex symbol of the hard-bodied athletic world. Parents probably will worry that their primary school girls will want to know why their role model is not wearing any clothes.

Dr. Mary Jo Kane, director of the University of Minnesota’s Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport said this, “It used to be that female athletes were portrayed as wholesome, All-American girls. Now you get female athletes in GQ, Playboy and the Swimsuit issue. The result of it is coverage that is very damaging — that trivializes and marginalizes women athletes because it does not give them the respect they deserve as competent athletes.”

She added, “If elite female athletes think posing in Playboy is showing off their bodies as competent athletes, they are either naive or fools.”

Beard is neither naive nor fool. Contrary to what others said, she is smart. She knows that her place to Beijing 2008 is not confirmed and before the world forget about it, she has to squeeze every dollar she can out from her body and fame. Her brand is her body and her proud Olympic resume. After posing as cover girl for FHM, Maxim, Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue and appearing in Speedo advertisements, she has much dollar than her peers. With these fame gained from posing nude in Playboy, she has raised her public profile and position herself for a post-Olympic modeling career. She took advantage of her fame and she used the magazine as a way to attract non-swimming fans. She is smart, isn’t she?

Beard is unapologetic about what she calls her latest “outside adventure”. She claimed that appearing in that magazine does not change her personality or who she is.

It is a business decision, it is a career decision; It is her body, it is her right.

People love winners and people love beautiful person. Amanda Beard is both. Amanda Beard said that it may not do justice to her saying that her decision in anyway trivializes what she has accomplished. It does not, it brings what she has done to a wider group of people.

Also, let’s not forget Amanda is just a swimmer. She is not a basketball player and she does not command a $40 million deal. Nor she a England Premier League soccer player who makes 2 million pounds a year.

Though the sum is undisclosed, I believe that she had made sure this Playboy deal was really worth the money. Right after this deal, she has hired a licensing agency to help develop products, like fragrances, apparel and home products to be part of a signature Amanda Beard collection. She is also sorting through TV hosting offers and a movie script.

Amanda, however, has not lost focus in what she is doing best. She still trains hard by swimming five hours a day when she is not studying business at the University of Arizona or speaking in defense of endangered species. Again, this shows that Amanda knows her game plan well.

Without further ado, here you go for some of the best shots in Playboy:

Here you go for Amanda Beard’s photos in FHM:

Amanda Beard is not the first and I do not think she will be the last woman to use her body for stuffs other than athletics.

Many love seeing a good, healthy body being portrayed as beauty. I believe that Amanda works out and swim like crazy to get body like that. Just hope that Amanda will continue to win more medals in Olympic (so we can keep seeing her in magazines). Otherwise, she will be probably known more for her birthday suit than her swimsuit.

As much as I like seeing beautiful sportswomen but I still hope that sports will stand on its own merit without having sex element. It is tough, but I really hope so.

Does sex really sell a sport? I shall elaborate more in my future article.  At the mean time, you can check out the post of two sexy female tennis players - Ashley Harkleroad Appearing in Playboy and Ana Ivanovic Posing For FHM

Amanda Beard posed for Speedo advertisement.

Amanda Beard appeared nude in People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ (PETA) latest campaign in protest of the fur industry in August 2008 (before her games in Beijing Olympic 2008).

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