Naaaah... Maria Sharapova's too obvious a choice, but enjoy this photo anyway
NBC wants you to have Olympic fever... after all, how many hundred million dollars have they spent just for the rights to telecast the games?
By that rationale, they'll need to keep people hooked... and there's nothing that'll hook an American audience like drooling over the world's finest athletic specimens...
First, the Females:
Until just the other day, Ana Ivanovic was the number one ranked women's tennis player in the world. Forget Sharapova, man...
Katerina Emmons from Czech Republic: Because there's nothing hotter than a woman with a sniper rifle.
Kelly Sotherton from Great Britain. She nabbed a Bronze in Athens and Jackie Joyner-Kersee sees her as a heavy favorite to win gold this time. We just want to marry her and seize the throne at Buckingham. (Maybe because she reminds us a little bit of Carla Bruni.)
Jenny Adams from the US. The 100m master did an FHM shoot, so we'll root for her on that alone (although we don't read FHM or anything... really.)
Stephanie Rice from Australia. Going through a well-publicized breakup has got to be a major distraction on the eve of the Beijing Games, but swimmer Stephanie is the world record holder in the 200 meter individual medley and should perform strong here.
Continued in Part Two: The Male Candidates.
Several pics via Webtv.