FanHouse Gymnastics

If you happened to tune in to last night's coverage of this morning's women's team gymnastics in Beijing, you undoubtedly saw the Americans set the record that quite probably won't be broken for some time. I'm talking of course about the "Most Disappointed About a Silver" Olympic and organized competition records they broke in their loss to the "yeah, sure they're all 16" Chinese team. Led by Alicia Sacramone, who was understandably upset by her multiple mistakes, even the perma-smile of American Shawn Johnson couldn't hold the team back from disappointment history.

The irony of course, is that the most disappointed member of the team might have come ahead of anyone on the U.S. team last night. Less than 12 hours after the falls and the missteps and the crying, Sacramone's dominating the talk of the event -- and not all in a bad way.

In a sport dominated by 16-to-18-year old young women with bodies typically resembling those of 10-to-12-year old boys, the world (or at least the part that overlaps with the UFC, Axe Body Spray, energy drink and lad magazine target markets) fell in love with Alicia, a 21-year old at Brown University and FanHouse Attractive Olympian, from the first moment their parents/girlfriends/wives made them watch the 2008 women's team gymnastics competition.

Alicia's failures in the main event (besides Michael Phelps attempt to become the most gilded American since Mr. T circa-1986) only insured her more camera time, not to mention endeared her to all those who couldn't help but feel sorry for her (any publicity will tell you, vulnerability sells).

If you happened to tune in to last night's coverage of this morning's women's team gymnastics in Beijing, you undoubtedly saw the Americans set the record that quite probably won't be broken for some time. I'm talking of course about the "Most Disappointed About a Silver" Olympic and organized competition records they broke in their loss to the "yeah, sure they're all 16" Chinese team. Led by Alicia Sacramone, who was understandably upset by her multiple mistakes, even the perma-smile of American Shawn Johnson couldn't hold the team back from disappointment history.

The irony of course, is that the most disappointed member of the team might have come ahead of anyone on the U.S. team last night. Less than 12 hours after the falls and the missteps and the crying, Sacramone's dominating the talk of the event -- and not all in a bad way.

In a sport dominated by 16-to-18-year old young women with bodies typically resembling those of 10-to-12-year old boys, the world (or at least the part that overlaps with the UFC, Axe Body Spray, energy drink and lad magazine target markets) fell in love with Alicia, a 21-year old at Brown University and FanHouse Attractive Olympian, from the first moment their parents/girlfriends/wives made them watch the 2008 women's team gymnastics competition.

Continue Reading Something Tells Us Things Will Work Out for Alicia Sacramone

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.

With her powerful, energetic style, Alicia Sacramone is one of the world's premier gymnasts on the vault and floor events. In fact, her floor performance in Stuttgart last year sealed the American women's second world championship ever (and the first on foreign soil).

The full-time student at Brown first made the U.S. team in 2003, but injury and a disastrous performance at the 2004 U.S. Nationals kept her from making the trip to Athens. Since that failure, though, she has collected seven medals from three world championships, and this summer she looks to continue to the trend.

So, she's an Ivy League student who happens to be a world-class athlete, but what good is that if people reading sports blogs don't find her attractive? After the jump, enjoy visual evidence of Alicia's flexibility and vote in our democratic yet shallow poll.