Irish Independent
June 9, 2006 Friday
THE CHIC OF CHESS, THE COOL OF POOL AND THE NAKED HIGH-JUMPER
After this week’s grand-master punch-up over a dancing queen, MYLES
McWEENEY reports onthe sportswomen who have become as famousfor their
style and looks as their performances
To be honest, you don’t expect chess players to walk on the wild side
of life. Think chess and you conjure up images of bespectacled high
IQ nerds hunched over tables, chins resting on their hands and their
brows furrowed with concentration as they try to work out their next
killer move.
But British chess grandmaster Danny Gormally used an unusual opening
gambit when he spotted the world Number 3 player, Armenia’s Levon
Aronlan, on the dance-floor with Arianne Caoili, an attractive
19-year-old Australian player.
Danny, who is thought to be somewhat fond of Ms Caoili, marched up to
his rival and made his move. He decked the Armenian with a neat
uppercut.
The blow-up, which took place at the Chess Olympiad in Turin in the
appropriately named Hiroshima Mon Amour night club, has the chess
world in a tizz. And it has since come to light that there is even a
bizarre website dedicated to the physical charms of the best female
players, ‘Top Ten Women’s Chess Beauty Contest’.
Miss Caoili, whose ambition is to become a pop singer, is currently
No 7 on that list, which is topped by the Russian grandmaster, Vera
Nebolsina. Others on the top ten list include Serbian grandmaster
Maria Manakova, who has posed nude for magazines and often wears
distractingly skimpy outfits at tournaments, and France’s Aurelie
Dacalor.
But chess is not the only game with stars who have become more rich
and famous for their looks than their sporting prowess. The Russian
tennis player Anna Kournikova naturally springs to mind first – but
there are many more.
Check out Tatiana Grigorieva, the Australian pole-vaulter of
exceptional talent and genuine supermodel looks. The 6ft-tall athlete
was born in St Petersburg in Russia and emigrated to Australia in
1997 and now competes for her adopted country. In the 2002
Commonwealth Games, she won the gold medal and set a record.
While she is ultra-competitive in her sports career – she’s ranked No
2 in the Commonwealth – she has also embarked on a successful
modelling career, and has appeared in TV commercials and magazine
photo shoots. Her eccentric fashion sense has turned heads as she
often vaults in fur-trimmed outfits.
One sports star who shed her sheer Lycra outfits for the au naturel
look is US high jumper Amy Acuff, who has posed in the nude for a
number of magazines, including Playboy and Esquire.
The eye-catching 6ft 2ins tall Amy is an exceptional athlete and has
represented the US in the Olympics three times, coming fourth in her
event in Athens in 2004. She’s got brains too, having earned a degree
in biology and is now a licensed acupuncturist in LA as well as
training for the Beijing games in 2008.
Katerina Witt, the great former East German figure skater, has also
done a shoot for Russia’s edition of Playboy.
Born in East Germany, Katerina, a two-time Olympic gold medalist,
dominated the figure skating world in the ’80s, winning more titles
than anyone else before her. She often scandalised the prudish World
Skating Federation authorities with her daring and provocative
costumes.
Pool, the small-table version of billiards that’s hugely popular in
America, doesn’t have a glamorous image because of its association
with smoky bars and dim pool halls. That was until the arrival of
Jeanette Lee, a first generation Korean American who has become
famous for bringing glamour to the green baize.
Nicknamed The Black Widow because of her penchant for all-black
outfits, Jeanette is one of the best female pool and snooker players
in the world, despite having had a steel rod implanted in her back at
the age of 13 to cure scoliosis, or curvature of the spine.
And, of course, tennis has always been celebrated for its glamorous
players. These days, Anna Kournikova is the most famous one for being
more successful off-court than on – although she did quite well as a
doubles player, partnering Martina Hingis to a number of titles. The
pair laughingly referred to themselves as the Spice Girls of tennis.
Anna made world headlines (and a small fortune) through her sexy
Berlei Shock Absorber sports bra advertisements, which had the
unforgettable tag line “only the ball should bounce.” She is
currently retired from the game because of back injuries.
It takes exceptional physical prowess to be a successful triathlon
athlete – you have to swim 2.4 miles in the ocean, jump on a bicycle
and hammer out 112 miles and then, without pause, run 26.2 miles.
At the age of 18, Lokelani McMichael became the youngest woman to
finish the Hawaii Ironman contest, a record she still holds. She has
competed in the Ironman contest for seven consecutive years, winning
the women’s section each time.
Having been told her muscles were too big for modeling, she proved
the experts wrong and her Polynesian beauty won her successful
spreads for Elle, Self, Shape, Esquire and Nike’s latest ad campaign.
A future as a sports TV presenter beckons.
One of the sexiest sports of all, from the male spectator’s point of
view, has to be women’s Beach Volleyball.
You only have to see a video of Gabrielle Reece in action to know why
it has such attraction to couch potatoes whose most strenuous
exercise is popping the tab on a beer can and ripping open a packet
of crisps.
She’s 6ft 3ins tall, possesses a stunning figure and moves with
amazing grace and athleticism. She’s been described as the
ultra-beauty jock, having broadened her fan base by drag-racing,
sky-diving, kayaking and riding monster waves in Hawaii.
What all these glamorous and successful women in sport have proved is
that you don’t have to be an over-muscled female jock to make
headlines on both the sports pages and those of fashion magazines.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress