Victoria Pendleton

+1 to Aidan though - it's a shame that female athletes have to go down this route to get accepted, as if somehow stripping off and posing for lads' mags validates them.

Hm I dunno. Maybe they're trying to make the point that it's possible to have world-class athletic prowess and be feminine at the same time. Some men are intimidated by a woman with more brains than them. So I'm sure there are some who are intimidated by a woman with more muscles as well.

There's also a distinction between "athletes" and "celebrities". A minority of athletes are, for whatever reason, elevated into the ranks of celebrities, and naturally people judge them on the critiera commonly used to judge celebrities... i.e. looks, sexiness, etc. I have no idea who won the last Olympic gold in any event, but I can name a bunch of hot blonde tennis stars and sexy footballers.

These people are not just athletes, they're celebrities. If they can be top-notch athletes and rake in extra money from photographic royalties... more power to them. If they're crap athletes, well, no amount of hotness will fix that... and then we can all deride them for being phonies.