Article:2008 Hottest Female Athlete Tournament - First Round Voting (Region 1)

As a red blooded American male, one’s attention, obsessive as it may be, is inevitably drawn towards two primary targets: sports and women. So a natural progression for this site is to, in true ArmchairGM style, conduct scads of research in order to truly determine who is/was the hottest female athlete of all time.

Our crack research team, yours truly (Shrubbery) and Romiezzo, along with input from the legendary Manny Stiles and Davis21wylie, put together the most comprehensive field of feminine athletic hotness ever assembled. This bracket will feature 128 lovely ladies, representing more than 30 sporting disciplines, over a dozen countries, all set to undoubtedly break your heart and melt your computer terminal. And the best part is you, the users, get to vote. Your choices will advance until one sultry lass is left, to be crowned the Hottest Female Athlete of All Time.

We seeded the top 64 in order and matched them up randomly with the non-seeds, trying our best to not pair up ladies from the same sport.

The power “conferences” in this tourney are tennis, figure skating, track, swimming, and golf. Between these conferences, nearly half the field was drawn. But don’t count out the mid-majors: surfing, soccer, and beach volleyball are all well represented in the upper seeds. The fact is, no conference may be as “stacked” as surfing, which features a #3 seed, two #5 seeds, and enough hotness to give the majors a run for their money. The overwhelming top conference is tennis, which produced 23 hotties, including a #1, #4, #5, and #7 seed, all of whom are capable of winning the whole show. Don’t sleep on the small conferences, so to speak. Mixed martial arts, triathlon, billiards, table tennis, and skiing all have entrants who may take the coveted title.

So, without further delay, we bring you Bracket #1. This region, the Amanda Beard region, as she is the #1 seed, is dominated by swimming, tennis, figure skating, and golf. Beard is the prohibitive favorite, mostly because she’s been in Playboy. But Katarina Witt, Niki Gudex, Heather Mitts, or Ashley Force could be tough outs and may be able to win this region. Several dark horses could emerge from this region: Allison Stokke, unseeded Carlie Butler, and Ashley Harkelroad are eminently hot and should be watched closely.

Best first round matchup: #8 Summer Sanders vs. Carlie Butler

Honestly, this one is too close to call and either one will be an extremely tough out.

Biggest miss match: #7 Swin Cash vs. Annika Sorenstam

Sorry Anika, Swin is just too freakin’ hot for you to hope to beat her.

Second round matchups that will be intriguing: Allison Stokke vs. Swin Cash, Biba Golic vs. Ashley Force, Gabriela Sabatini vs. Ashley Harkelroad

Best bet to go to the Final Four of Hotness: (Just a hunch) Niki Gudex

Dark horse: Allison Stokke

So, without further ado, let's skip down (if you haven't already) to the voting now, shall we? Have fun!

{| |- | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Amanda Beard |- | (Swimming) |- | |} | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Sonja Henie |- | (Ice-Skating) |- |  |} | valign="top" | {| width="250px" |- |  |} |} {| |- | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Lindsey Jacobellis |- | (Snowboarding) |- |  |} | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Lindsay Benko |- | (Swimming) |- |  |} | valign="top" | {| width="250px" |- |  |} |} {| |- | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Summer Sanders |- | (Swimming) |- |  |} | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Carlie Butler |- | (Golf) |- |  |} | valign="top" | {| width="250px" |- |  |} |} {| |- | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Kari Traa |- | (Skiing) |- |  |} | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Danica Patrick |- | (Racing) |- |  |} | valign="top" | {| width="250px" |- |  |} |} {| |- | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Gabriela Sabatini |- | (Tennis) |- | |} | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Amy Acuff |- | (Track) |- |  |} | valign="top" | {| width="250px" |- |  |} |} {| |- | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Ashley Harkleroad |- | (Tennis) |- | |} | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Mohini Bhardwaj |- | (Gymnastics) |- |  |} | valign="top" | {| width="250px" |- |  |} |} {| |- | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Niki Gudex |- | (Mount biking) |- | |} | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Heidi Drazich |- | (Surfing) |- |  |} | valign="top" | {| width="250px" |- |  |} |} {| |- | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Kristi Yamaguchi |- | (Ice-skating) |- | |} | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Amanda Freed |- | (Softball) |- |  |} | valign="top" | {| width="250px" |- |  |} |} {| |- | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Heather Mitts |- | (Soccer) |- | |} | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Lisa Harrison |- | (Basketball) |- |  |} | valign="top" | {| width="250px" |- |  |} |} {| |- | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Vonetta Flowers |- | (Bobsledding) |- | |} | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Tamara Jenkins |- | (Kayaking) |- |  |} | valign="top" | {| width="250px" |- |  |} |} {| |- | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Ashley Force |- | (Racing) |- | |} | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Elena Dementieva |- | (Tennis) |- |  |} | valign="top" | {| width="250px" |- |  |} |} {| |- | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Biba Golic |- | (Table tennis) |- | |} | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Misty May-Treanor |- | (Beach volleyball) |- |  |} | valign="top" | {| width="250px" |- |  |} |} {| |- | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Swin Cash |- | (Basketball) |- | |} | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Annika Sorenstam |- | (Golf) |- |  |} | valign="top" | {| width="250px" |- |  |} |} {| |- | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Allison Stokke |- | (Pole vaulting/Track) |- | |} | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Steffi Graf |- | (Tennis) |- |  |} | valign="top" | {| width="250px" |- |  |} |} {| |- | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Katarina Witt |- | (Ice-Skating) |- | |} | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Haley Cope |- | (Swimming) |- |  |} | valign="top" | {| width="250px" |- |  |} |} {| |- | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Sophie Sandolo |- | (Golf) |- | |} | valign="top" | {| width="150px" |- | Nnehha Lynch |- | (Track) |- |  |} | valign="top" | {| width="250px" |- |  |} |}

We are looking to close the voting at around 48 hours, which means that the voting for this region will end at 4:30 AM on October 29, 2008 (Wednesday).

And feel free to add more pictures of these lovely ladies to help convince other people that one's hotter than the other. We won't say no to that; who would?