(Courtesy of About.com)
I have been swimming since I was about 4, yet the “swimmer’s build” has always escaped me. Perhaps it was my reluctance to do crunches or my cravings for Cinnabun as an adolescent, but my abdominals have always had more of a pneumatic shape than I would have liked. Summer is a perennial reminder of my condition, yet every four years an even more extreme display of six-packs forces me to shirk from the shirtless shores: The Olympics.
Donning little more than a lycra handkerchief, the stars of the various Olympic swim teams flamboyantly display muscles that appear strong enough to grate cheese. To rub salt in my wounds, NBC has put together a playful round of “Guess The Abs,” wherein eager fans on the web have the opportunity to divine which set of steely muscles belongs to which Olympic hunk. Guess for yourself here!
I have to admit, I failed most of the rounds and left the game a little guilty, as if I’d just indulged in some kind of soft-core Olympic pornography. I’m waiting for the Greco-Roman wrestling or archery edition, though I’m afraid those will lack the needed sex appeal to get them onto NBC’s site. This latest Playgirl inspired thread certainly doens’t suggest NBC will be covering any intriguing Olympic human interest stories while there are abs to shoot. I guess the network doesn’t care whether you tune in to check out Michael Phelps’ famous technique, or famous muscular endowments:
For those of you interested in following Phelps go for 7 gold medals, tune into NBC this Saturday at 3:30. Those interested in simply seeing him shirtless, get there 5 minutes earlier.
