And if you had a clue, you could read why they all wear what they wear: The traditional gym volleyball clothing is fine for larger teams, but with the incredible amount of running and jumping, they need something without alot of extra material to catch their hands as they're going for the ball.

I guess that explains why the men also wear bikinis in this event? NOT.

I couldn't care less about the "morality" of the outfits. They can wear whatever they want. Let's just not pretend that there's some sort of athletic necessity to the teeny-weeny bikinis tight enough to be a second skin, and which are worn only by the women. They're dressing like that to attract eyeballs, period.

Please. Men traditionally wear trunks on the beach. They don't wear bikinis, because, quite frankly, they probably don't want to look 'gay'. They're wearing what they normally wear to play beach volleyball. Trying to make a case because men don't wear bikinis to play beach volleyball is incredibly weak.

Women wear bikinis because they are traditional beach wear for women. It works for their game. Bloomers went out a long time ago on the beach. Most men wear trunks on the beach, unless they are recipients of the 'international male' catalog.

And if you look at a communist country like china, which I doubt has to worry so much about 'eye candy' to sell products in a non-capitalist society, they were wearing almost identical outfits to the americans and every other international team. They're not wearing string bikinis, they're wearing the equivalent to a sport bra. And they're not wearing thongs for bottoms, they're wearing bikini type bottoms that are functional.

It fits their sport. And to go back to the original post, it is a sport. Anybody who tries to dispute that just looks moronic.

came from here includes a couple photos

The Olympian Bods

Bikinis, Tight Uniforms, Risqué Cheerleaders Add Sexual Dimension To The 2004 Games

By GREG MORAGO
Courant Staff Writer

August 19 2004

Hey, check out the itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny bikinis of the Greek cheerleaders dancing at the Olympic beach volleyball matches! Way to show those sand-dusted gluts, girls!

Oh, wait, those aren't the cheerleaders, they're the athletes.

It's hard to tell the difference. The "uniforms" sported by U.S. Olympians Kerri Walsh and Misty May are as skimpy as the cheeky bikinis worn by the cheerleaders (where on earth did they come from, by the way?) whipping the popular sport into the Athenian version of beach blanket bingo.

Are we alone in thinking these skin-baring uniforms are ridiculously revealing? And what about those postage-stamp Speedos sported by the men's divers? Is it just pervy us, or have the Olympics turned into prime-time soft porn?

No, it's just what happens when good old American marketing meets the greatest concentration of perfect bodies: Sex is good for the Games.

"It's a bit degrading to our sport," Summer Lochowicz of the Australian beach volleyball team was quoted as saying of all the dancing hoochies. But, she sighed, "Sex sells."

Indeed, athletes went into the Games as possible pinups. High jumper Amy Acuff had already posed for the September cover of Playboy. She also graces the cover of September's FHM magazine, along with Olympic teammates Amanda Beard, Haley Cope and Logan Tom - all in white bikinis for the laddie mag's "Sexy Olympic Special." Water polo team members Amber Stachowski, Thalia Munro and Jackie Frank all appear in sexy nothings with come-hither looks in this month's edition of Stuff Magazine.

Let's not forget about the guys. Swimmers Ian Thorpe (whose face and body are gay porno-ideal) and Michael Phelps are hottie poster boys, with their practically spray-on body suits and obliques-revealing hot pants. More beef cake is on the way from gymnastics, wrestling, weightlifting and track and field. And the boys from the high-dive platform? Pass us the smelling salts.

And what about the opening ceremony? NBC conveniently left out of its marathon coverage shots of the Greek statuary - male models with chiseled bodies sporting molded frontispieces that included realistic genitalia. Which begs the question: Why weren't the performers nude, as they were in the original Greek games? Apparently it's not OK for TV to show the phallus of classic Greek statuary, but it's fine for the camera to linger on the taut butt cheeks of a women's beach volleyball player.

These sexed-up Olympics aren't lost on even the casual TV viewers. Nor on the media columnists at the Games who have made much of the panty raid that has become the beach volleyball competition. It's popular, though: That venue, unlike the empty-seated areas for other events, is sold out.

But it's not just the Olympic observers who have sex on the brain. The Olympians themselves, perhaps fueled by Greece's storied erotic nature or even the perfection of their own flesh, are prepared for love among the ruins. Condom manufacturer Durex has donated 130,000 condoms (as well as 30,000 tubes of lubricant) to the Olympic village. The 17,000 athletes and officials can help themselves to as much as they need.

Go slow, Olympians, we don't want a repeat of the Sydney Games where condom supplies ran short and 20,000 additional condoms had to be rushed to Australia.

Is this what the Greek god of love and desire had in mind? Surely even Eros couldn't have imagined such a sexed-drenched Olympics.