Hunks Of Vancouver

As promised in a post earlier this week, here is my compilation... or should I say awarding the hunks of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, no surprise that I couldn't just narrow it down to three medalists.  We'll start with a couple of expected suspects, then take a walk down the proverbial road not taken.

This first one may be a bit unexpected.  While I don't like to limit myself to having a "type," I will admit it typically doesn't often include redheads or guys with really long hair.  But alas, there is always that exception to the rule and as one of the faces of the Games and of snowboarding itself, it was just too hard to ignore Shaun White. While I was quite prepared to hate him going in the games (along with fellow darlings Lindsay and Bode), I found his combination of "duuuude!-ness" and well-spoked-ness to be quite charming.  And look, despite having to wear those Winter Wonderland pajamas to "work" Shaun is showing off in the latest Rolling Stone that there is quite a nice body underneath it all.

Google: Shaun White Shirtless, Shaun White Rolling Stone

Next up is the guy that fueled W&C during the Olympics... Apolo Anto Ohno.  I had close to 26,000 visitors in February (10k more than January!) and each day during the Games, it seemed that 80% of the search hits were for Apolo, more often that not hoping to see him in some state of undress.  Thankfully, I did deliver on those goods during his stint on DWTS, which included a shirtless pic and the naked GAP ad. Unfortunately, in that same post the YouTube of his cha-cha to "Push It" (and one of my all-time favorite dances from the show) is no longer available.  You can see those pix if you haven't already clicked on the link above, but here's a "new to me" smoldering Apolo pic:

Next, is Apolo's likely heir apparent in short-track, Filipino-Polish American J.R. Celski.  How's that for mix?  If you watched him race, you probably heard about his fairly recent scary accident where he sliced his leg with his own skate and almost bled out on a track, yikes!  But he is pretty darn adorable and despite looking like jailbait he is 19 going on 20, which I realize is still ridiculously young, but...

Google: JR Celski shirtless, JR Celski underwear

This next guy was my first "Who is that?" double-take of the Vancouver Games, the Gold Medalist in 5000M Speed Skating... Sven Kramer from The Netherlands. Kramer made news later in the Games when he had the best (gold medal winning + and Olympic record!) time in the 10000M, but since his coach directed him to the wrong lane during a switchover and he was disqualified.  Needless to say this Dutch Treat was pretty pissed about it, but seemed good later in the week for the team event... but certainly not much to angry about here:

It was while I was doing The Big Picture post, that Canadian ice dancer Scott Moir provided the spark for this very Hunks of Vancouver post.  I'll say again that one of my personal highlights of the Games was their medal ceremony and joyous singing of "O Canada!" with Moir being simply adorable!  It was virtually (ha!) impossible to get a picture of him without his equally charming partner, Tessa Virtue (get it now ? Virtue... virtually)... let alone one of him scantily dressed, but we don't always have to go for the skin shots now do we?  I think this series of pictures perfectly sums up his appeal.

Finally, you didn't think I'd get through a Winter Olympics-related post without a little curling now did you?  And you didn't think I was simply obsessed with it because of.. well, the actual curling?  Ok, I was actually riveted, but having cute to hot guys yelling "Haaaaaaaaarrrrrdddd!" increased the appeal of it. !

While they didn't do very well, but ince it was NBC here, obviously the American team received a lot of air time.  But even despite their poor record, it was still fun watching the young team which included Jason Smith and Chris Plys (left photo order, than the reverse of  Plys / Smith in the right pic). Plys was definitely the hunk of the team. I was hoping to stumble upon some screen caps where he showed off his many tattoos to NBC (lifting and even taking off his shirt), but alas could not find any (and anyhow, some of them were of a religious nature, ugh!).  Json Smith, however, is just adorkable! :-)

Now, if you want some real curling hunks... yes, I used "curling" and "hunks" in the same sentence... I suggest you look no further than John Morris of Canada (left two pix) and David Murdoch of Great Britain (tho he's Scottish, have learned from tennis' Andy Murray that distinction likes to be made). But these guys had the good looks and the bods too!

I am sure I have left out plenty of other candidates.  But as Vancouver is slipping from my memory and I am now forced to try and retain the names of the kids that are still on Idol, these are the ones that left a lasting impression on me.  Though I'd be more than happy for you to play along and let me know you own hunks of the Games. 

Comments

[Loraine Hammerbeck]

I concur completely. I, too, was prepared to hate White, but he's very winning.

Of course, he's no Apolo Ohno, but then again, who is?

I also like JR, but you're totally right about jailbait. And he's smart enough (1800 SAT, 3.71 gpa) to sue us over it. ;-)

That said, I look forward to him being my favorite Olympian in 2014 - assuming Apolo isn't skating.

[Loraine Hammerbeck]

Also - you had some naked pictures from 2007 - but you should check this out. Half-dressed Ohno at the bottom, but the WHOLE site is worthwhile. This guy also took the black and white JR photo.
http://www.ewoudbroeksma.com/paginas/sport16.html

[Ed]

Thanks Loraine, that website was awesome and just not saying that for the half-naked stuff, but really beautiful artwork of the human body at its peak!

[Jeff]

THANK YOU for this post. ;-) I just happened to tune in to curling on the last day during the final game (match? heat?), and Morris definitely caught my eye!