Who is the sexiest female sports star ever? According to a list of "The 100 Hottest Athletes of All Time" by U.S. sports website the Bleacher Report, it is Paraguayan javelin thrower Leryn Franco.
Franco set national records in the javelin and triple jump at age 17, and went on to compete in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. But her Olympic results, finishing 42nd and 51st respectively, didn't match up to her success as a beauty. Standing 180 cm and weighing 54 kg, Franco was a runner-up in the 2006 Miss Paraguay pageant and was wooed by modeling agencies. Nevertheless, sports remains her true passion as she says modeling is merely a means to earn money to continue her javelin career.
Blair O'Neal, a U.S. golfer and model, came in second. She made her professional debut in golf in 2004 and signed up with Ford Models the same year. In 2008 she was named one of the 50 sexiest sports figures in the world by Sports Illustrated. Although she's well known for her fashions on the greens, O'Neal is not a full member of the Ladies Professional Golf Association and mostly plays on second-tier tours.
No. 3 went to a more familiar name, Anna Kournikova. The Russian tennis beauty "defined hot in the late 90s and early 00s," the Bleacher Report wrote. "She wasn't just a hot athlete, she was the sexiest woman on the planet who also happened to play tennis."
Maria Sharapova, who ranked first on the website's list of the 40 hottest female athletes of the 21st century released late last year, slipped to ninth.
Tennis had eight players on the latest list, including world No.1 Serena Williams at 53rd. Golf, swimming and surfing had seven each, while six beauties came from the sport of mixed martial arts. The only athlete of Asian descent to make the list was Jeannette Lee, a Korean-American billiards player who placed 93rd.
