Leryn Franco Calendar, Laure Manaudou's Photos, Amanda Beard's Nude Poster: Skin is in at the 2008 Summer Olympics

The javelin event has been part of the Olympic tradition for a hundred years, but it is could be argued that no one as beautiful as Leryn Franco ever threw a javelin in an Olympic event. Franco, 26, is competing for her native Paraguay in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. This is her second Olympics; she competed in Athens in 2004.

Athletic competitions aren't the only events Franco competes in. She was runner-up for 2006 Miss Paraguay.

Franco is making news at the 2008 Summer Olympics not because she has won a medal, however, but because of the news circulating that she has been featured in a personal calendar where she goes topless (a true enough statment, but a bit misleading). This will no doubt spark more interest in the javelin throwing competition this year than usual. Nothing like a little nudity to spice up a javelin event.

The Beijing games seem to be seeing a lot more skin than the average Olympics.

American swimmer Amanda Beard set tongues to wagging when she unveiled her nude PETA poster outside the Olympic Village in Beijing on August 6. The poster shows the swimmer in profile on her knees in water, the words "Be comfortable in your own skin. Don't wear fur." placed strategically across her thigh. The poster is part of PETA's anti-fur campaign.

But Beard's poster had nothing on France's swimmer, gold-medal winning Laure Manaudou, who had nude photos and a sex tape (Manaudou denies she is the woman in tape) distributed via the internet in late 2007, only to have them become a topic of international interest again as she vied for the gold in Beijing. The distraction may have been the partial cause of her coming in last in the 400 metre freestyle and seventh in the 200 metre freestyle, both for which she won the gold in Athens in 2004. To make matters worse, the 200 metre freestyle was won and a new record set by ex-teammate Frederica Pellegrini of Italy, who also happens to date Manaudou's ex-boyfriend.

American softball star and 2004 gold-medalist Jennie Finch's photos from from 2005-06 Sports Illustrated swimsuit spreads have become quite the hot topic again. Finch shows a tasteful style and once turned down a lucrative Playboy contract, stating that she would rather be a role model for young girls.

Brazil championed a synchronized swimming set of twins, Bia and Branca Feres, but the hype got ahead of itself on the internet. It seems that the duo did not make it to the Olympics. Titles like "Finally, A Reason To Watch The Olympics" lit up the internet. Still, the two added some beauty and some breathless talk in the run-up to the Olympics, posing topless for several magazines and doing layouts for fashion and swimsuit ads.

People may have never heard of Leryn Franco before talk of her calendar put her in the international spotlight, and she may not walk away with any medals from the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, but she and the rest of these beautiful women got some exposure (in more ways than one) in one of the most restricted cities in the world. With the possible exception of Manaudou, that is an accomplishment that will more likely as not be to their benefit. And that will return to them another kind of gold -- the kind they can take to the bank.

Source:

PostChronicle.com

ChicagoTribune.com

Guardian.co.uk

SportsIllustrated.com

Scottsands.wordpress.com

Rightpundits.com