Water polo? Merrill who? Don’t worry, you can always leave it to your girl buffalita to find hot, shirtless Jewish athletes no matter what sport they play. Mr. Moses is the goalkeeper for the US Olympic water polo team who won silver at the 2008 Beijing games. Call it cheating if you must, but it’s too easy to find an unnecessary amount of half/mostly naked photos if an athlete plays a water sport. Just sayin’.
What would a Hanukkah Hunk post group be without some London olympic swimming eye candy? I give you champion freestyler Jason Lezak for night two.
Ok, so he’s just barely 18 and has a tendency towards tans/bronzer/fake and baking that is questionable – but those are about the only bad things I can tell you about British diver Tom Daley.
Look, I realize this makes me a bit of a creeper and not every pic of Tom does it for me, but you really can’t argue with this:
The above pic is from the cover of a British magazine and is also in The Official Tom Daley 2013 Calendar (currently sold out on Amazon).
Plus, he’s got a British accent. And you know how I feel about an accent!
Follow the jump to be mesmorized by a gif and join me in my boy-crush
I’m starting us off on a bad foot by starting a day late, but hopefully the first two hotties are so hot that you’ll forgive me. (Also, you’ll understand that I bought a house and did a lot of packing and moving today.)
We Ladies… are long-time fans of U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte, but his title as hottest summer Olympian was seriously in jeopardy this summer when we got a load of Nathan Adrian.
He’s got the killer body and ups the ante with an amazing smile – there are like five total pictures on Google where he’s not grinning from ear to ear. He graduated with honors from Berkeley. And did we mention those abs.
Where Lochte is gimmicky and a bit blase, Adrian was fresh-faced and looked to be enjoying every minute. I found just one picture of him in a suit and there are few pics of him not in the pool. He seems goofy and fun and genuine. Here’s hoping we have a few more summers of hoping we can one day have a beer or two with Nathan Adrian.
“I’m the first entry in the Ladies… Advent Calendar of Hotness? YES!”
Exact quote from the Tigers radio announcers at the bottom of the 4th (after CC was removed):
“Well, we’re back in Detroit and this is uh, this is uh, [laughs] this is something.”
Also, in case you forgot (I did), this is Max Scherzer:
And yes there is nothing actually wrong with people with heterochromia, but it does somehow seem like a symptom of how cursed this ALCS has been for the Yankees that they spent half their elimination looking completely helpless at the hands of a guy who might have been considered a witch a few centuries back. (Sorry, Bee!)
Maybe this was your first Olympics with access to NBC’s online feeds (or perhaps you are a lucky Canadian who can access live events all the time). Maybe you coincidentally happened to have 14 days off work (counting weekends) during the 17 days of the Summer Olympics. Maybe you are now exhibiting symptoms such as disorientation with your sudden abundance of free time, queasiness when watching sports where anthems are played before the game begins, and a compulsion to introduce Olympic athletes into only tangentially related topics (such as, say, Usain Bolt in a conversation about stealing bases on a Cardinals broadcast). You may be suffering from an Olympics Hangover. And, like those other types of hangovers, there are various methods for dealing with it.
We knew, going in, that the London Olympics would be the first to feature female athletes from every participating country. We knew that there were more women than men on both the US Olympic team and at the Olympics overall. But Thursday, with gold medal matches in both women’s football and water polo, and the first ever gold medals awarded in women’s boxing, seemed even more special for women’s sports (particularly if you happen to be a fan of the US). The 1918 Hartlepool Expansion Ladies Football Team* up there would no doubt approve.
* Photo via The Public Domain Project, who have a great post of old team photos.
It’s no secret that women’s beach volleyball players wear some incredibly skimpy outfits when they compete.
What I guess I didn’t realize is how many pigs are out there only watching them for the T&A. I’ve been pretty appalled by the number of people in my Twitter timeline making sexist remarks about how they shouldn’t even be playing if they can’t do it almost naked. These are friends and other sports writers who I normally agree with and respect.
Here’s the thing – I don’t begrudge these ladies their bikinis. Beach volleyball is a fringe sport that I’m certain struggles to get money and attention. Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings are household names and that just wouldn’t be the case if they didn’t do what they do in bikinis. It helps that they’re incredibly talented at it and have won many, many medals and competitions. But people started noticing them because they weren’t wearing many clothes.
And so I say, more power to you, fringe athletes. You do what you need to do to get noticed and get sponsorships and get viewers. You sell your non-profitting selves any which way you can.
Which I suppose isn’t a very feminist point of view. I should be railing against the misogyny that leads to women athletes feeling like they have to use sex appeal to sell themselves and their sport. And while that’s true, it’s a fight we’ve been having for decades and it’s not changing any time soon, so in the meantime, if i looked like these ladies do, I’d be shaking what my mama gave me if it meant TV time and sponsorship money.
So does that make me a hypocrite for getting mad at all the folks who are treating these ladies like pieces of meat instead of world-class athletes?
Follow the jump for Twitter samples and butts. Lots of butts
This lovely picture of London Bridge’s Olympic rings was taken by my sister-in-law. Thanks, sis!
It’s hard to believe, but the Olympics are finally only days away, not weeks away, and so it must be time for Olympic Bingo! (Actually, if our search stats are to be believed, a bunch of you think it’s past time for Olympic Bingo. Hopefully two days is enough prep time for your Opening Ceremonies parties.)
(Photo: Postmedia News)
What would you do if you received a call telling you that you have been chosen as your country’s flag bearer for the 2012 London Olympic Games? Burst into tears? Panic? Reach for the wine? Go for a run?
That’s exactly what triathlete Simon Whitfield did upon receiving the news: a jaunt through Victoria, BC all the way to the Terry Fox marker, where he gave the statue a high five.
Whitfield won gold at the Sydney Games in 2000, when the triathlon made its Olympic debut. He picked up a silver in Beijing. He’s also won gold at the Commonwealth Games and has 14 World Cup victories. At 37, he’s not exactly the youngest athlete on Team Canada (that honour belongs to teen gymnast Victoria Moors) but I don’t buy the notion that his age will work against him. It may, however, be one of his last competitions: Whitfield is deeply focused on his role as a father to two young daughters, and training obviously takes his time away from them. You can’t hit a news story, blog post or even his Facebook page without Whitfield talking about them. ADORBS!
And don’t talk to Whitfield about this nonsense of the Flag Bearer’s Jinx! “It’s so last century,” he told CBC Sports. You gotta love his confidence!
Follow the jump for a visual guide to Canada’s Olympic flag bearer!
Happy 4th, America! Hope you are all enjoying the surrealism of a Wednesday holiday. Here is the US Women’s Soccer Team just after their last Olympic tuneup match. I’m a big fan of the (new?) striped kits, but I do think Nike missed out on a design opportunity by not making the goalie kit darker blue and covered with stars — just think how cool the above picture would look with Hope over in the left corner.
If you are having to work today (or are perhaps one of our Canadian readers), or if you just are looking for some entertainment before the baseball games and fireworks start, we’ve got you covered….
I swear, we will post about something non-Olympic soon (although my excuse is that I am trying not to jinx baseball with my team of choice just starting to get their act together again), but today we need your help, lovely readers. With Pat Burrell officially retired and London 2012 fast approaching, we’d like to put together a new, Olympic themed cover photo for our Facebook page. Obviously, we will be including the man (who is currently being interviewed on my TV right now! It is distracting!) we all know and love, Mr. Lochte:
Lochte and Phelps in Shanghai in 2011. They look so happy and non-competitive here. (Photo: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)
As if the London Games weren’t already worth watching, we can now happily set our PVRs for fantastic swimming showdowns between bjillion-time medallist Michael Phelps and our new official mascot since Pat Burrell’s retirement, Ryan Lochte. Hot-chte edged Phelps in the 400-meter individual medley Monday night at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska (what up, Miss Minda!), finishing with a time of 4:07.06. Phelps strolled in at 4:07.89. Tell me this battle isn’t going to be fun to watch! Is there a Canadian in this yet? I can honestly say I don’t care. But only this time.
ESPN’s video gallery which accompanies this story includes the feature Ryan vs. Ryan. I’m not sure what was more impressive: his workout regime or his slow-mo dive into the pool.
31 days until the 2012 Summer Games, you guys!
Trey Hardee, Shotput (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
With just over a month to go before the Olympics, countries around the world have begun selecting their teams. This week happens to be both the US Track and Field and the US Diving Trials (probably on NBC, albeit severely edited, this weekend), which are two of my favorite pre-Olympic events: Track and Field because I was raised by a track geek, and diving because it’s just really cool to watch, and you always know when someone REALLY screws up.
Pictures of striving Olympic hopefuls, and a lecture to the wire service caption writers, after the jump.
There are less than 2 months until the London Olympics people: today’s links start with another great slideshow of Team USA (distance runner Barnard Legat is just a sample). Hat tip to The Hairpin, whose staff are clearly our Olympic soulmates.
Ryan Lochte is ready for London. (Photo: Annie Leibovitz/Vogue)
Amirite? She’s photographed so many beautiful people in equally beautiful fashion. And surely she reads Ladies… and has noticed our affection for one Ryan Lochte, so she did this just for us. OF COURSE! Seriously, Annie, next time you shoot Ryan, call one of us. You could use an assistant, right? Yes, Annie, I’ll make Ryan wetter…
This photo is part of a spread for Vogue’s June issue in celebration of Team USA’s Olympic hopefuls, on newsstands May 22. But Vogue is crafty, and knew that by releasing these tasty photos we’d be snatching five copies apiece of this issue as soon as it makes its way to Wegmans and Shoppers Drug Mart (remember, I’m in Canada.)
Oh, but wait! There’s more! Continue reading
Why am I so happy when my NHL team is in 12th place? That picture should give you a hint. Five for Friday after the jump, y’all… Continue reading
Evans in 1988
In 1988, I started my public career as a sports geek by standing up in front of my entire elementary school and correctly volunteering that the summer Olympics would be held in Seoul, South Korea. For this feat, I won an official US Swim Team swim cap.
Barely old enough to be one of my babysitters, Janet Evans went to Seoul and won three gold medals.
Now I’m all grown up (I’m actually older than my parents were in ’88) and looking forward to a summer of geeking out about the London Olympics all over the Internet. Janet Evans hasn’t changed much either: at 40, she’s qualified for this summer’s US Olympic Trials after an unprecedented 14 year hiatus from swimming.
There were a lot of sports-themed gifts given in my family this year. I received a set of Cardinals pens and my first official Jets shirt (right at the time when I was most mortified to be a Jets fan, but that’s another story), my boyfriend received a few Saints items, and a lot of orange changed hands among the 3/5 of my immediate family who attended Oklahoma State.
But, as often happens, it was only this week that I discovered a few awesome sports related items that I really wish I’d known about in early December.
Guess who was SO excited to snag Albert Pujols on her fantasy team (in large part because one of the “people” drafting in front of her was Lady Bee’s dog, Daisy, but that’s another story) only to see him have one of his worst season starts ever?
Albert himself doesn’t seem worried and he has historically broken out of his slumps in spectacular fashion, so I’m sure it’s just a matter of being patient. However, given my excellent record of jinxing things I write about on this blog let’s just try this:
Albert Pujols is so bad right now, you guys. I think maybe he’s finally over the hill. Or maybe the pressure of his contract year is getting to him. Whatever the case, I don’t see him breaking out of this slump any time soon.
Moving on to things which don’t directly affect any of my teams (which usually nullifies any jinxes or reverse jinxes)….
Can you guess what I made with this classic baby yarn?
It’s been a head-spinning 24 hours of breaking news: Forsberg’s retirement (*sniff!*), pitchers and catchers reporting (YES!) and Arcade Fire‘s tremendous Grammy win (OUI!). So dizzying that one needs to sit down, take stock, maybe do a little knitting to calm down.
While one of us Ladies… checks on Games Mistress to she how she’s faring through this Pujols drama (CAN’T YOU SEE YOU’RE KILLING HER, ALBERT?!), let me tell you how I made out in our Craft Like A Champion Challenge.
(Photo: Getty Images)
Here’s a nice change from football and hockey players: US swimmer and three-time Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte, who won gold in the Mens’ 200 metre backstroke final at the FINA Short Course Swimming World Championship in Dubai this past weekend. It wasn’t the only individual race he won, and he just may have set a few records and raised the hype bar a little for London in 2012. But for now, let’s focus on the present. Let’s see that medal, Ryan…
(Photo: AP)
Now if that smile doesn’t take the edge off your holiday stress, nothing will.
Lady Bee: “I’m doing a post for Ladies… on Keith Tkachuk!”
Mr. Bee: “Why?”
Lady Bee: “Well, he’s retiring!”
Mr. Bee: “It’s about time! Is Bill Guerin joining him?”
(Lady Bee rolls eyes, proceeds to find handsome pictures anyway)
Allow me (again) to bask in a little national pride for a moment.
Canadians spend a lot of time navel gazing and musing over the fact that we don’t wear our hearts on our sleeves much. We’re afraid of coming on a little too strong, and when we do, we apologize profusely.
I’m so glad that for a change, we let our flag wave often and proudly. We sported the red and white. We sang our anthem spontaneously. We celebrated with beer! We even came off as a bit obnoxious.
For once, Canadians need not apologize.
(Exception: the closing ceremonies music. Let me make this clear: most Canadians don’t like Nickelback. Here‘s an example of a band we should have had close the Vancouver games, which also explains the mystery behind the title of this post.)
The Vancouver 2010 Winter Games certainly had its ups and downs and fair share of criticism. There will be plenty of time for analysis in that regard. For now, let’s just bask in the glory of those record 14 gold medals, including one in…mens’ hockey!!
Hayley Wickenheiser: OWNS IT!
Canada’s much-ballyhooed “Own The Podium” program to support its Olympic athletes has weathered tremendous criticism for falling short of expectations.
I can’t help but roll my eyes at all of this. You can’t build a development program overnight, and let’s face it: these athletes are obviously doing something right. Much was made of the fact that we had never won gold in Montreal or Calgary. Today, we have eight gold medals. And we still have curling and mens’ hockey to go!
Look, I never expect Canada to be overly dominant at any Olympics. The U.S. and various EU countries regularly kick our asses in the medal count: fact of life. We accept it. Remember, this is a nation that lost its Expos and hasn’t seen the Stanley Cup travel down Yonge Street since 1967. We’re used to not having it all in the sports realm. And that’s OK. We have a rich hockey history and public health care and we can boast that Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot (NOT DEAD!) all hail from here.
What was the point of this post? Oh yeah: CANADIAN OLYMPIANS WE LOVE, EH?
The Olympics can bring out the best and worst of one’s allegiances to their country. I’ve never found myself hating on countries like Germany and South Korea in the past, but make them the USA’s latest competition, and I loathe them. I’ve also encountered another sort of conundrum. Being a huge hockey fan, I have allegiances to certain players because they play for my favorite team. None of the players that I love play for Team USA. Uh-oh!
So after the jump experience my patriotic conundrum. Continue reading
USA! USA!
Apologies to our own Lady Bee in advance, but we’re not just talkin’ country pride here. We’re talkin’ hometown pride. That’s right – the Buffalo Sabres’ own RYAN MILLER is a force to be reckoned with, and that means you, Canada! 45 shots on goal is impressive and all, but Ry’s stopping 42 of them and helping Team USA on to a 5-3 win over Canada this past Sunday is even more impressive in my book. More after the jump on the, well, crap that my hometown hero had to go through leading up to that kick ass night.
The preceding title has nothing to do with this post… but if that damn jingle must be stuck in my head all day, it must now be stuck in yours as well!
Back to the lecture at hand… There’s been a lot of focus and fuss made of curling at these Winter Olympics. All around the world there intramural leagues forming and regular Joes believing they have a shot of winning gold and hearing their nation’s anthem. Or maybe their just in it for the crazy pants, who knows!
I contend that if curling is a sport worthy of the pomp and circumstance of the time honored tradition of Olympic competition… then sign spinning should be next!
UPDATE: The link below should actually work, and in a non-mobile form. Sorry aout that.
Assuming Miss Minda understands how to make this thingie work, we’re gonna liveblog this thing. RIGHT HERE. RIGHT NOW. (Which is French for “click that link right there.”)
Olympics and OMG JOHNNY WEIR
The figure skaters can’t have all the fun. Meet Team Norway.
Ladies... 
