"[We] don’t lift weights in order to look hot, "

rainbow kirby

Mars Bar wrote: »

I love the definition that the female weight lifters have.

Ditto, there's something really beautiful about a strong, athletic body.

mackg

Jogathon wrote: »

Actually, what I found to be quite messed up was the fact that people called the Aussie swimmer fat - she is a highly trained, fit, Olympic ideal - not fat - toned and athletic. People's perception of "fat" is not right.

Athletes especially seem to get severe criticism if they are not seen to be in perfect shape regardless of the truth of the matter. Andy Reid suffered "fat" jibes for years throughout his career.

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

It doesn't really help that at the first sign of easy money these athletes get their kit off for magazines either

Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham, Jamie Redknapp etc. have been doing photo shoots along similar lines for years without it negatively impacting on peoples perception of them as sportsmen why should women be any different?

ceegee

mackg wrote: »

Jogathon wrote: »

Actually, what I found to be quite messed up was the fact that people called the Aussie swimmer fat - she is a highly trained, fit, Olympic ideal - not fat - toned and athletic. People's perception of "fat" is not right.

Athletes especially seem to get severe criticism if they are not seen to be in perfect shape regardless of the truth of the matter. Andy Reid suffered "fat" jibes for years throughout his career.

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

It doesn't really help that at the first sign of easy money these athletes get their kit off for magazines either

Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham, Jamie Redknapp etc. have been doing photo shoots along similar lines for years without it negatively impacting on peoples perception of them as sportsmen why should women be any different?

Id have to disagree, plenty of fans and pundits have been dismissive of these players due to their fancy dan images. They get taken less seriously, and respected less than their more rugged/ugly looking peers who dont do photo shoots

jayteecork

Urmm Leisel Jones is fat

Wibbs

jayteecork care to explain how this adds to this debate?

Ambersky

There seem to be a few different reactions to the controversy that developed out of the criticisms directed at Zoe Smith and other athletes about their appearance.
My take has been that I would welcome the acceptance of a more diverse range of kinds of beauty and physical athleticism.
I want people to be able to look at someone and say "yes I like the look of him or her and I wouldn’t be attracted to that person but I can appreciate that others might" or else just leave the person alone without comment.
I am against the limiting of beauty to what fits into the stereotypes of current acceptable forms of appearance for women and men.
I would like to see an absolute end to comments and posts and magazine articles etc etc that put up a picture of anyone and say look s/he is fat or ugly or looks like the wrong gender or looks lesbian or gay or whatever, in a derogatory way.
What is the compulsion people feel to put others down about their appearance? Does it make them feel superior, are they harboring feelings of inadequacy, insecurity about their own sexuality. Do they feel that if others don’t fit into the box they think acceptable people fit into, that the world will no longer appreciate them? What is it I don’t understand.
I think Lesbian and Gay athletes have been at the cutting edge of the move to allow more diversity in what is seen as the physical athletic perfection of the human body and because of that I celebrate and support them.
As well as that different sports sometimes simply require the development of muscle or body fat in different areas of the body irrespective of what is usually considered attractive for a particular gender. They are ignoring the stereotypes for gender in order to compete at the highest level of their sport. Its the Olympic Games they are competing in for **** sake not The Rose Of Tralee.
My support is a kind of personal support because diversity is a personal issue for me. It is an issue I feel passionately about and have some knowledge of. It is a support of the athletes and how they live their lives before and after the games. This is where I am coming from and I reckon that almost everyone here is posting also from where they are coming from and that posts often say at least as much about the poster as the issue at hand.

BUT. I do know that what these athletes want and have been working all their lives towards is to do their absolute best at the Olympic Games.
The games are on now athletes need to be able to give their full attention to their sport .
Anything that is created in the media to take their attention off their sport is counterproductive and unfair including comments on their gender and sexual orientation and weight.
Many athletes have spoken about all the distractions the commercial orientated policies and the way the Games are moving away from the athletes and actual sport and more towards providing entertainment.
I wish them well and hope they can achieve their best despite all that is going on around them particularly the ones who have been the subject of recent negative media attention. Why cant everyone just wish them well and let them get on with their ******* sport.

kylith

jayteecork wrote: »

Urmm Leisel Jones is fat

And she still managed to get to the last 4 olympics. Tell you what; swim 200m BS against her and then you can throw insults around.

Dolbert

This article sums it up pretty well for me.

Imagine if the female form was celebrated purely for its awe-inspiring functionality, rather than judged in terms of weight. If it were to happen anywhere, the Olympic Games would surely be it. You might even expect it.

But you might be disappointed.

Australian swimmer Leisel Jones was picked apart last week by Australia's Herald Sun newspaper, which published "then and now" photos suggesting she had put on weight. Readers were then asked to decide if Jones was fit enough to swim.

In other words, does she look like a swimmer should look? Not: does she swim like a swimmer should swim?

Jones has made history as the first Australian swimmer to compete at four Olympic Games. She has won eight Olympic medals, including three golds. She was an Olympic medalist at age 14. She's one of the best female breaststrokers the world has ever seen.

But never mind all that, LET'S TALK ABOUT HER THIGHS. Because the focus on Jones has now swapped from where it clearly should be - her incredible career - and lies squarely on her body shape. Which is a sad and infuriating thing. As put by former Olympic swimming champion, Giaan Rooney:

"Anyone commenting on Leisel's weight three days out from the Olympics should be ashamed .... She's done the work to get here and she deserves the same right as everyone else to be judged on her performance and her performance alone."

As Jogathon said earlier in the thread, it's astonishing that people will actually call a world-class, incredibly fit athlete 'fat' because she doesn't meet the 'Olympic Babe' ideal. Mind-boggling.

syklops

Well I persoanlly think Zoe Smith is gorgeous. She actually reminds me a bit of Samia Smith(Maria Connor in Corrie) who is yummy!

Zoe Smith:


Samia Smith


I saw an interesting app on the BBC news website. You can put in your height and weight and it will tell you which athlete you are closest to dimension wise. Obviously, it doesnt differenciate between fat-weight and muscle-weight, but it is still interesting, and quite motivating, especially for those of us with body hang ups, to see someone with our approximate dimensions is also an Olympic athlete.

I just started watching "the Newsroom", and Sunday nights episode touched on the subject of comments made on websites. The question asked around 2.23 is "Who post comments on the internet more, people who are content or people who are incontent(discontent). Here is the clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkDUIGg3MGk

My point is, Zoe Smith really should pay less heed to anonymous commenters on the internet.

Sea Filly

I think Liesel Jones does look out of shape. But she's clearly not. She qualified, didn't she? OK, she's not performing as well as she did four years ago and eight years ago but that's pretty normal for elite swimmers heading into their late 20s.

Mars Bar

Ambersky wrote: »

There seem to be a few different reactions...

Hey Ambersky, you are clearly passionate and have opinions on this but your "wall of text" approach is a bit off putting. I think it would be great if you could condense it a bit?

Mars Bar

Mars Bar wrote: »

Hey Ambersky, you are clearly passionate and have opinions on this but your "wall of text" approach is a bit off putting. I think it would be great if you could condense it a bit?

Mars Bar, as with all forums on Boards, if you have an issue with a post please use the report function and let the mods deal with it.

Thanks

whoopsadaisydoodles

Morag

http://www.metro.us/newyork/sports/article/1148979--what-if-every-olympic-sport-was-photographed-like-beach-volleyball

Most of the shots of the ladies beach volley ball have been ass/crotch shots.
This shows how silly they are by showing the same type of shots of men sports as
what they have been taking of the ladies.

Sea Filly

Sea Filly wrote: »

I think Liesel Jones does look out of shape. But she's clearly not. She qualified, didn't she? OK, she's not performing as well as she did four years ago and eight years ago but that's pretty normal for elite swimmers heading into their late 20s.

She doesn't look peak for sure but she's not a young athelete tbf.
Similar in the mens swimming where mens gb swimmer yesterday looked like an average bloke compared to the rest of the swimmers and his performance reflected.

puffishoes

mackg wrote: »

Athletes especially seem to get severe criticism if they are not seen to be in perfect shape regardless of the truth of the matter. Andy Reid suffered "fat" jibes for years throughout his career.

To be fair, Andy reid was paid CIRCA 60k-70k a WEEK to be fit.

that's right, twice the yearly avg ind wage a WEEK to be FIT.

which ended up costing his place playing the sport he was PAID to play for his country. He chose big macs over the pride of his country. Rightly people are going to be pretty pissed off.

Sala

Sharrow wrote: »

http://www.metro.us/newyork/sports/article/1148979--what-if-every-olympic-sport-was-photographed-like-beach-volleyball

Most of the shots of the ladies beach volley ball have been ass/crotch shots.
This shows how silly they are by showing the same type of shots of men sports as
what they have been taking of the ladies.

Love that!! There is bound to be some "sexy" shots of men and women in the Olympics but if I was a female Volley ball player I'd be getting pissed off at this stage as the amount of pictures above and galleries of volleyball online is overkill and detracting from the fact that they are actually Olympic athletes.

Ogling aside, I think the negative insulting comments about the athletes are much worse. Imagine being an Olympian swimmer and all people care about is whether you have a spare tyre, and post horrible insults about you on the internet.

puffishoes

Sala wrote: »

Ogling aside, I think the negative insulting comments about the athletes are much worse. Imagine being an Olympian swimmer and all people care about is whether you have a spare tyre, and post horrible insults about you on the internet.

Imagine, you're an actor and all everyone talks about is your coke and hooker habbit.

imagine you're one of the best footballers who ever lived and all everyone wants to do is discuss what age the granny was you had sex with for money.

Imagine you ARE the best footballer who ever lived and all anyone wants to do is talk about your abuse of alcohol.

People in the spotlight will be judged. this will never change.

daenerysstormborn3

This isn't related to lifting but it's along similar lines, did anyone read the comments made about that young American gymnast, think her name is Gabrielle. There she was off making history and winning gold etc. and there were people with nothing else to complain about so instead they moaned about her hair. Her hair!!

pickarooney

The only reason beach volleyball exists as an Olympic sport, separate to 'normal' volleyball, is for the skimpy beach outfits. It's a farce, IMO.

Malari

pickarooney wrote: »

The only reason beach volleyball exists as an Olympic sport, separate to 'normal' volleyball, is for the skimpy beach outfits. It's a farce, IMO.

I would have thought it's a bit more athletic in terms if being able to dive for the ball more. Falling on sand probably hurts a lot less than falling on an arena floor?

Kooli

pickarooney wrote: »

The only reason beach volleyball exists as an Olympic sport, separate to 'normal' volleyball, is for the skimpy beach outfits. It's a farce, IMO.

I'm not sure why beach volleyball athletes are objectified so much more than the others. Aren't most athletics outfits skimpy now?

Sonics2k

pickarooney wrote: »

The only reason beach volleyball exists as an Olympic sport, separate to 'normal' volleyball, is for the skimpy beach outfits. It's a farce, IMO.

That's not actually true at all.

Beach volleyball requires a very different center of gravity playstyle, as it's harder to move around on sand. Much harder than a gym floor.

I remember playing it in Brisbane with friends and being amazed at how much harder it was than I thought.

panda100

rainbow kirby wrote: »

Ditto, there's something really beautiful about a strong, athletic body.

+1 I love muscly, female body types. I am just in awe of the all the female athletes in the Olympics.