Written By: Allison Luthman | @AllisonLuthman
Member of Ball State Sports Link

Red carpets, signings, posters, jerseys, photo shoots. Why is it that our culture idolizes athletes and carries a starstruck obsession with sports?

Well, when it comes down to it, sports are just plain sexy.

Sexy [sek-see] :

Excitingly appealing; glamorous. Interesting or exciting. – Dictionary.com

And yes, when I say sexy I am referring to the above definition, not what we typically think of when hearing the word. (Although, we will get to that later.)

Growing up, every child admired some sort of superhero. We’ve all been to events where “if you could have any super power, what would it be?” has been used as an ice-breaker.

This is because we have an incredible fascination with the idea of doing things that the average person cannot do. We want to see people fly, have super strength, speed and agility.

As a child we found our fix for these in comic books and movies. In real life, sports are just about as close as we can get to those movies and athletes are our real-world super heroes.

Twenty-seven years later, we continue to stay fascinated with Michael Jordan’s famous 15-foot dunk. In case you want to re-live that glorious moment, you can check out that video here.

To the average person, he has defied all rules of gravity, doing what the ordinary could never dream of. Since then, the Internet has only granted us more and more access into how incredibly athletic these players are and how extremely more advanced their bodies are than ours.

Nothing shows off these athletes more than ESPN’s Body Issue…literally.

Here are a few of the athletes featured in the latest issue. Can we just stop and say “wow”?

These athletes aren’t posing with the intent of selling sex appeal. The Body Issue is a  showcase of what the human body is capable of and what an amazing tool it can be with the dedication and training of a professional athlete.

Our real-life superheroes strip down and show us the anatomic power behind all of the games and matches we look forward to so much.

I had the chance this past summer to speak with Ken Krieger, father of Ali Krieger who is pictured above. It was just after she had finished the photo shoot and Ken and I were able to have a great, candid conversation about his thoughts on his daughter posing naked for ESPN.

“She’s worked hard for it, I’m extremely proud of her. She has every right to show it (her body) off.” – Ken Krieger

I couldn’t have agreed more. These athletes have spend their entire lives in gyms, on the court and on the field pushing their bodies to and beyond the limit. They train to perform for us, the sports fans, so that we might have some entertainment during their games and be able to watch our very own, real-world superheroes.

And yes, those athletes are keeping sports sexy.