The ESPN Body Issue: Top 10 Things That Are Nice To Look At

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Do you want to see some abs and some butts today? Well, you are in luck! ESPN has released photos of the superstar athletes who will appear in/on the covers of ESPN The Magazine‘s seventh annual Body Issue. If you’re unfamiliar, The Body Issue is all about naked athletes being naked. It’s different from Sports Illustrated‘s Swimsuit Issue because the naked people are showcasing impressive displays of athleticism and not, like, covering their nipples with the tips of canoe oars or hiding coyly behind palm fronds. It’s pretty damn empowering. Also, it’s just damn pretty.

These are the Top 10 Nice Things To Look At that ESPN has shown us so far.

1. LPGA superstar Sadena Parks

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2. USA Track & Field hammer thrower Amanda Bingson

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3. 12-time Olympic medalist Natalie Anne Coughlin

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4. WNBA all-star Brittney Griner

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5. WORLD CUP WINNER Ali Krieger

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6. Gold medal-winning gymnast Aly Raisman

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7. Women’s national field hockey team forward Paige Selenski

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8. Olympic archer Khatuna Lorig

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9. Olympic heptathlete Chantae McMillan

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10. Professional skateboarder Leticia Bufoni

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Bonus: This cat and this lion who are best friends

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They are not in The Body Issue, but they also deserve to be celebrated and loved. Not everyone can be an Olympian.

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1563 articles for us.

49 Comments

  1. They’re beautiful images, and I love athletic women, but it still bothers me that nipples have to be covered. I mean they did a good job at covering them in a natural way but it’s still intentionally covered..

    Reply to This Comment

      • that’s fine, everyone should do whatever they want with their own bodies, I just wish it was a choice for smthng mainstream like that, I just want to see breast nudity in a non sexual way just like the men in sports magazine will definitely have their nipples exposed. I mean I am sure that some of these women that are feeling comfortable posing naked with their butts exposed would feel just fine if the nipple was part of the picture..maybe not all of them but I doubt every single of the women would have personally requested to make sure their nipple is also covered; which is basically what I was complaining about in my post.

        Reply to This Comment

      • Nerd that I am I looked into the etymology of her name and it is suspected to come from a pre-modern Turkish title for a lady which also passed into early Islamic usage as a term for a queen or a lady and into the Ottoman Empire of course which is why it ended it up in Georgia.

        Turkic things mean ancient lady warriors in my brain, so fantasy novel character name indeed.

        Most of the influence for my high fantasy imaginings and world building start in South Eastern Europe and keeps flowing Eastward or end up in the Artic Circle…so um happy nerd sounds I made may or may not have woken an innocent little dog from her slumber.

        Reply to This Comment

        • Aw poor pup hehe. Your ancient Turkic lady warrior idea got my brain turning, and I started thinking of the ancient Scythians. The region is more or less right, though may be earlier than the time period you had in mind, and they did have lady warriors. And they made cool stuff like this.

          Reply to This Comment

          • The Scythians are the reason for that thought process and I love that swirl style and may or may not have some etchant pieces containing that swirl.

            But def have at least one clasp with that S curl swirl.
            I love S curve clasps.

  24. I think I nearly knocked out at that photo of Bufoni. How have I not heard of her before?? (Oh I know why. Female skaters are never talked about…which makes me cry. Y’all can there be an article about the sexism in skateboarding? I have many feels about this.)
    I got a thing for skateboarding, despite me not being able to do an ollie. I need a skater girlfriend to teach me. This is obv the only solution to my dilemma.

    Fantastic photoset. I have much respect for athletes, especially since I usually just sit down and draw for unhealthy periods of time. And then wonder why I don’t have abs.

    Reply to This Comment

  27. I pretty much had heart eyes while looking at all of these. When I was a little girl I remember being so scared of growing up to be “too mucular” (which was a weird fear for me to have because I was a total shrimp). As an adult looking at these women all I see is how beautiful their strength is. I wish younger me had seen these pictures growing up.

    Reply to This Comment

    • Omg this a thousand times. I used to play soccer in middle school and then I moved away to a new high school where all the girls were super feminine and warned me that I shouldn’t get into that because I would be too muscular and no boys would like me. Now that I’m grown and gay I wish that I had never listened to try to fit in.

      Reply to This Comment

      • Growing up a lot of my fear about my body and what it would look like as I got older was mixed up with this fear of not being liked by boys. Nowadays I’m like “who cares what dudes think?”

        Reply to This Comment

  28. I like Aly’s pic because the context is pretty natural and showcases strength and beauty. But some of the other photos lack the emphasis…what does photo no 3 convey?

    From the art perspective, some are good.

    The ESPN title …things. … will they ever learn anything?

    Reply to This Comment

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