NHRA funny car racer Courtney Force, Denver Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried and New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey are among the sports stars gracing the pages of this year's issue
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Kerri Walsh Jennings is the latest sports star revealed to have stripped off for this year's ESPN Magazine's 'The Body Issue' - and she's done so during pregnancy and just two months after giving birth to her third child.
The blonde beauty who won gold in women's beach volleyball at the London Olympics proudly appears on one of eight covers with her baby bump, and inside the glossy pages she is shown cradling her adorable newborn daughter Scout.
Walsh Jennings is one of 20 athletes who dare to bare all for the fifth annual 'The Body Issue,' showing the world the incredible physiques required to compete at an elite level.
With the toned body of a professional athlete, Kerri looked incredible in both images.
But she confessed even she had her fears ahead of the ESPN shoot.
'Driving (to the photo shoot) I was sweating bullets,' she told People magazine. 'I was really, really nervous. I felt exposed, not just physically, but with all of my insecurities.'
She said she felt more comfortable in the pre-baby pictures than the post-baby ones - taken just two months after Scout was born in April.
'I was big and rotund when I'm usually the opposite, but it was really comfortable because I felt almost like I was in costume,' she told ESPN.
'But for the second (shoot), I was two and a half months out from having a baby. I'm supposed to be tight and toned and strong, but I have a lot more work to do.'
However, she said the act of labor made her feel like a super hero and respect her body more than ever.
'Having babies - literally delivering a baby - makes me feel like Wonder Woman,' Walsh Jennings told ESPN. 'Everything else seems minor compared to the soul-shaking thing that is labor.
'I'm still a critic of my body - I'm still a woman - but I respect my body more than I have in my life. It's not perfect, but I can't tell you how proud I am of my body.'
She explained to People, however, that she has been working hard since the birth of her daughter to get back into tip-top shape and prepare for her first tournament after becoming a mom for the third time.
'I have been working my butt off literally every single day,' she said.
Other stars revealed to be gracing the pages of the famed issue, which hits newsstands on July 12, include San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, 77-year-old golf Hall of Famer Gary Player and Washington Wizards point guard John Wall.
The appearance of Player is likely to be a polarizing issue. The native South African, Player won nine majors from the late 1950s to late 1970s, including three Masters championships.
Another golfer, Carly Booth, also made her debut in the magazine.
The Scot, who turned 21 this summer, said she grew up working out in a homemade gym built by her father on her family's land.
She has five tattoos, including a Shakespeare quote that reads: 'It is not the stars to hold our destiny, But it is ourselves.'
Gorgeous blond NHRA funny car racer Courtney Force and Denver Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried each grace one of eight covers, while New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey also shows off his fine form.
Laying provocatively on a huge car tire in the desert, 25-year-old Force is certainly a force to be reckoned with. In another shot, the driver is pictured nude carrying a red gas can down the middle of an empty road.
She told The New York Daily News that she had to train extra hard to keep up with her male counterparts on the track.
'We're driving 10,000 horsepower cars and although I am a female, I have to work extra hard to drive one of these cars to keep up with the men.'
Harvey poses with nothing but his mitt and a baseball in the magazine and a second image shows his sneaking out of a hotel room, naked, with dirty dishes covering his modesty.
The right-hander is used to being in the limelight for his feats on the field, but stripping off for the American public in 'The Body Issue' was another ball game.
'It was kind of nerve-racking at first,' Harvey told The Daily News. 'I've never been fully nude in front of random people like that before - especially with a camera around. But now that it is all done, it was a fun experience.'
Other stars featured this year included Miesha Tate, the 26-year-old No. 1 bantamweight contender on the women's Ultimate Fighting Championship circuit, posing in nothing but a pair of pink boxing gloves on the beach and professional snowboarder Elena Hight, who goes bare down a mountain with just her board.
Basketball player Faried also snagged a cover this year and the 23-year-old, nicknamed the 'Manimal,' shows off his impeccably toned physique again in the spread with his weapon of choice - a basketball - in his grip.
source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2358993/Kerry-Walsh-Jennings-Naked-Olympic-star-poses-nude-ESPN-Body-Issue-pregnant.html
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