FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Generally, I think that women who are professional athletes and who are viewed as "sexy" in the public eye get more attention than other professional athletes. Sometimes, in fact, they get more attention than other women. Which makes the utter lack of female professional athletes on Maxim's Top 100 list both a little surprising, and given who did make the cut, a little appalling, honestly.

The merits (Marissa Miller at number one) and the demerits (Britney Spears at nineteen) have already been discussed, but seriously, where are the athletes here? The only two athletes that I counted, while doing detailed research that involved clicking on lots of photos, who could remotely qualify were Danica Patrick and Stacy Keibler-- a lady of the WWE -- unless you're willing to count Diora Baird because she decided to putt in a bikini.

These two ladies checked in at 91 and 89 overall, respectively. The problem with that? Well, besides the fact that they are the only athletes even remotely involved, there's also the issue of the ranking here. Because the difference between Danica and Jennifer Love Hewitt (20) is reversed and divisible by ten in non-crazy land.

I would also ask, if we're going to roll with early 90's throwbacks, where is Anna Kournikova? Britney and Christina Aguilera can make this list but not the Russian "tennis" "star"?

Former Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding is selling a book, called "The Tonya Tapes" in which she offers, for the first time, an account of why she didn't go to the authorities in 1994 when her rival Nancy Kerrigan was injured in an attack orchestrated by her husband, Jeff Gillooly. Here she is explaining it on Today:

According to Harding, she planned to go to the FBI to report Gillooly, but Gillooly and two other men then kidnapped her, held her at gunpoint, raped her and told her that they would kill her if she didn't help them lie to the authorities.

Today host Meredith Vieira responded to that with the obvious question: Why has it taken her 14 years to tell anyone about this incident? Harding answered that she was ashamed. I think it's fair to say that the vast majority of people watching the interview will conclude that this claim is nothing more than a publicity stunt aimed at selling books.

Justine Henin, the No. 1 ranked women's tennis player in the world, announced her retirement today at age 25.

Henin made the announcement, which is effective immediately, just two weeks before she was expected to defend her title at the French Open. She won the French four times, the U.S. Open twice and the Australian Open once. She also won the gold medal in women's singles at the 2004 Olympics.

Henin walks away at such a young age that it raises the question of whether she's the youngest athlete ever to retire on top, in any sport. When we think of athletes who retire on top, we usually think of people like Jim Brown, who played his last NFL game at age 29, or Barry Sanders, who quit at 30.

But 25 years old? Henin says she simply feels fatigued. Here's hoping she finds something she loves to do, as she has many decades of retirement ahead of her.

The biggest draw for EliteXC's first CBS show later this month is Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson. But the second-biggest draw may be Gina Carano, America's best-known women's mixed martial arts fighter, who will get another publicity boost tonight when ESPN features her on E:60.

And EliteXC is already looking beyond the Carano vs. Kaitlin Young fight on that May 31 card to a day when, EliteXC President Gary Shaw says, they might do an all-female MMA card.

"We'll continue putting [women] on Showtime and on CBS, and we'll continue putting them on the ShoXC cards, as well," Shaw said. "The fight team and (EliteXC matchmaker) Jeremy Lapen are working hard on additions for the female divisions."

Right now there aren't enough female MMA fighters under contract to EliteXC to pull off an all-female show, but Shaw says that's a real possibility for 2009. I think it would be great for the growth of the sport.

Olympic athletes often don't get paid to do anything other than look good. In that vein, Attractive Olympians handicaps which athletes may rake in endorsement deals after the Olympics.

Natasha Watley, Team USA's shortstop and a four-time first-team All-America at UCLA, moved seamlessly from the college game to international competition. In 2003, she led the Bruins to a national championship while winning Pac-10 Player of the Year honors and the Honda-Broderick Cup for the top female athlete in any sport. A year later, she helped the Americans win their third straight gold medal in softball, hitting .400 with 10 RBI in nine games while breaking the Olympic record with five stolen bases in one Olympiad.

Watley may be a key component to the best softball team in the world, but she still hasn't passed muster with sports blog readers who only care about her looks. We at FanHouse have taken the necessary steps to alleviate this oversight; after the jump, examine the photographic evidence and judge Watley on her beauty by voting in our charmingly shallow poll.

Annika Sorenstam will announce her retirement from the LPGA, according to a press release on her own website. Given her age, 37, her decision is appropriately termed "stepping away from competitive play. Sorenstam has been a professional golfer for 15 years, winning 88 tournaments, 72 of which were LPGA events and 10 of which were major championships.

'After much consideration, I have made the decision to step away from competitive golf at the end of this season,' said Annika, who has added three more victories to her career total so far in 2008. 'Because I love the game so much, this is obviously a hard decision to make, but it feels like the right one. I made this decision because I have a number of other priorities in my life, including starting a family, that I want to be as dedicated to as I have been to playing golf and it was always important to me to go out on my own terms.'

Sorenstam's legacy is unquestionable, considering the amount of notoriety she gained for the female professional golfers. She won the Golf Writers' Association award for female POY eight times and earned an astonishing $22 million plus in winnings over the duration of her 15 years on the links.

Her most famous moments, though, may have been interaction with the men's game, between her well known competitive friendship with Tiger Woods and playing in the Bank of America Colonial in 2003, the first woman to enter a PGA event in over 50 years. That is neither an indictment of the women's game nor an overstatement of the men's game; it's merely a compliment to Annika's 15 year dominance of the LPGA circuit.

Maria Sharapova has caved to -- or at least compromised with -- the Women's Tennis Association on the their recent photo shoot dispute, as it is being reported that the promotional photography session has already taken place.

Sharapova made headlines recently by refusing to attend a mandatory photo shoot that took place during the three days prior to the Italian Open in Rome. It now appears that she and the WTA reached a reasonable enough agreement to get the pictures taken without anyone getting fined.

'The timing of the shoot got reduced to about 90 minutes and I did that yesterday,' Russia's Australian Open champion told a news conference on the first day of the Rome tournament.

'The compromise was still pretty difficult since it's before a very big event. (But) the time reduction definitely makes it a lot easier than going into a four or five-hour shoot, without (the time for) hair and make-up, which adds another hour.'

'I've obviously made my point. I didn't feel people were listening to me. I think it's in our best interest to listen to all players,' she said.

The world abounds these days with versatile, young athletes. Some of them play multiple (nine) positions in one sport, and others just win state high school track championships. By themselves.

That's right. Bonnie Richardson, of Rochelle High School in Texas, won the state 1-A track and field championship all by her lonesome. She was the only athlete from her high school that qualified to appear, and she straight up rolled the competition. In fact, her feat was so amazing, she shocked herself.

'This totally blows me away,' the freckle-faced Richardson said while holding the trophy with a gold medal draped on her neck. 'This is amazing. I had no idea it was even possible.'

Richardson's title march began with field events on Friday when she won the high jump (5 feet, 5 inches), placed second in the long jump (18-7) and was third in the discus (121-0).

On Saturday, she won the 200 meters in 25.03 seconds and nearly pulled off a huge upset in the 100 before finishing second (12.19) to defending champion Kendra Coleman of Santa Anna. Richardson, a junior, earned a total of 42 team points to edge team runner-up Chilton (36).

The only thing that might top her story is the manner in which she trained; Rochelle apparently does not even have a track on campus, requiring her to either "watch for potholes" or to travel 10 miles. And, according to the AP, she also plays tennis and basketball. And football, if her parents would let her. In other words, Richardson laughs at Dan and Dave.

The great thing about this video of Olympic weightlifting hopeful Melanie Roach is what a typical wife and mother she seems like ... until you see her lift a 264-pound barbell:

Roach stands 5-foot-1, weighs 117 pounds, and has no trouble lifting twice her bodyweight over her head. This weekend she'll be at the U.S. weightlifting trials, where she's favored to earn a spot on the Olympic team.

Olympic athletes often don't get paid to do anything other than look good. In that vein, Attractive Olympians handicaps which athletes may rake in endorsement deals after the Olympics.

Natasha Kai -- known as "Tasha" or "TK" to her teammates -- is the most immediately noticeable player on the U.S. Women's National Team; her ever-growing canvas of tattoos (she's presently up to 19, according to D.C. Sports Bog's brief but splendidly detailed profile) and full sleeve make sure of that.

In addition to the ink, Kai's flashy on-field style and flat-out skill garner her even more looks. After three consecutive WAC Player of the Year awards at Hawaii, she became the fourth American woman to score in her first two international appearances. Through seven caps she had scored four goals. Now at 35 caps, she's a fixture on the national team and looking to improve upon her last trip to China, where the Americans finished a disappointing third in the Women's World Cup.

But enough about her athletic capabilities; let's tackle what really matters to the underworld inhabited by sports bloggers: is Natasha Kai a hottie? After the jump, examine more visual evidence (including video of her dancing) and rock the vote in our Internet poll.