Athletes au nature

MLB player Bryce Harper, NBA player Kevin Love, NFL player Odell Beckham, Jr., Olympian heptathlete Chantae McMillan, USA Track & Field hammer thrower Amanda Bingson, and Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin all appear completely nude on different versions on the magazine, doing flips, flexing muscles - and even holding some balls, of both the 'foot' and 'basket' variety.

Dropping trou in such a public way can be nerve-wracking - even for these super-fit stars. But Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper, for one, is thrilled to have been offered the chance to show off the goods in such a public way.

'You’re growing up and you say: "I want to be on the front of a Wheaties box; I want to be on the front of a Topps card; I want to be on the Body Issue,”' the 22-year-old said.

For the issue's seventh annual addition, which hits newsstands on Friday, he poses with a baseball - and nothing else - while flaunting the muscles that help him maintain a .346 batting average.

The Cleveland Cavaliers' Kevin Love, 26, dribbles a basketball in his birthday suit for his own cover, while New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham, Jr., 22, runs and jumps in the buff with a football. 

While Odell has naturally big hands - the football player said that he could palm a basketball as early as fourth grade - he also noted that keeping those hands strong has taken hard work and dedication. 

'I've been doing rubber-band exercises to build hand strength since high school,' he explained. 'It's something that started off in Chinese class my senior year, just wrapping rubber bands around my fingers and stretching them out. Anything I thought could make me better, I was going to do it.'

The natural athlete also admitted that he initially thought he'd make it big playing a different kind of football: 'My first love was soccer. A lot of my coaches from back in the day would say that I could have been in Europe right now playing.'

In an issue that wonders more at the body's power to achieve incredible things that its sex appeal, the women who've ditched their clothes for the upcoming issue are totally focused on paying homage to their sports.

Natalie Coughlin, who has won twelve Olympic medals, including three golds, crouches in water for her cover, telling the magazine that she's worked too hard to retire at age 30, as people expected her to do.

'I've taken really good care of my body to allow me to still compete at a very high level,' the now-32-year-old said. 'I lift four times a week.

'I can bench 70-pound dumbbells in each hand. I love that sensation of feeling so strong and powerful.'

She also discussed the body confidence that helped her escape some of the problems that plague other female swimmers, adding: 'Swimming is one of the sports where a lot of people suffer from body image issues. There were a lot of girls around me growing up that suffered full-blown eating disorders, or just the body dysmorphia that every girl feels -- especially every girl in a swimsuit.

'There were times when I wasn't happy with my body, but I always knew that I was really fit and that it was what allowed me to be successful in the pool.' 

(dailymail.co.uk)