In Their Glory

Serena Williams’s not the first sportsperson to do the full monty for a magazine cover.

Serena Williams may be making waves with her sensuous nude photo on the cover of ESPN magazine’s ‘Body issue’. But she’s not the first sportsperson to do the full monty.

German figure skater Katarina Witt and winner of two Olympic golds struck more gold at the newsstands when her nude spread for Playboy in December 1998, which became the first issue of the magazine to sell out since their first issue featuring Marilyn Monroe in 1953.

In 2000, there was Canadian water polo player Waneek Horn-Miller, outfitted in an eagle feather and a ball, on the cover of Time magazine, no less.

In 2001, US volleyball player Gabrielle Alysee Reece did a pretty stunning turn on the cover of Playboy magazine’s January edition. What a way to begin the new year.

In 2007, three years after her Olympian glory at Athens (she won three medals, totalling seven in her career),  American swimmer Amanda Beard appeared in all her naked glory for a Playboy spread in the July edition.

Believe it or not, usual suspect Anna Kournikova has not done a fully nude shoot (at least our research on the matter says so). The barest she’s got is a pretty sedate photo shoot for Jane magazine in June 2005.

About The Author

Sohini Chattopadhyay