Celebrity Sleuth Vol. 11 # 7

Beauty of Olympic Proportions! BUILT FOR SPEED 4 Double Gold MARIE JOSE PEREC 8 Leaps & Mounds JACQUI AGYEPONG 12 World Championship Form HABTEMARIAM NEBIAT NET ASSETS 16 Big Girl in the Middle GABRIELLE REECE 19 Volley Girls NANCY RENO 19 HOLLY McPEAK 20 Beauty and the Beach LIANE FENWICK 24 Striking Out A•Broad KEBA PHIPPS HOOP DREAMS 26 The Center of Attention LISA LESLIE 28 Awesome Aussie TRISH FALLON 32 Face Jam KYLIE IRELAND 36 Dennis' Menace ANICKA RODMAN 40 TheWorm's Turn-On STACY YARBROUGH TENNIS ACES 42 Fraulein Forehand STEFFI GRAF 44 Czech This Out! JANA NOVOTNA 46 Swiss {Can't} Miss MARTINA HINGIS 50 'Special K' ANNA KOURNIKOVA 52 Wimbledon's Winning Streak MELISSA JOHNSON LETHALWEAPONS 54 'The Best Ever' CYNTHIA ROTHROCK 58 Hollywood & Fine! JEANNE BASONE 62 A Total Knockout LESLIE GLASS BODIES OF WATER 66 Synch or Swim ESTELLA WARREN 69 Doing the Front Stroke METTE JACOBSEN 70 Franzi Freestyle FRANZISKA van ALMSICK 72 Golden Goddess of Water Skiing CAMILLE DUVALL ON THE BEAM 74 A Perfect Ten ANDREA MOLNAR 76 She Can Do It! KERRI STRUG 78 America's Most Decorated Gymnast SHANNON MILLER HOT OFF THE PRESSES 80 The Queen of Fitness MARLA DUNCAN 84 The Biggest and The Best NICOLE BASS 88 Muscle Elegance DENISE MASINO 92 TheWomen of Bill Dobbins LAURA CREAVALLE 93 SHARON BRUNEAU 94 DEBBIE MUGGLI 95 YOLANDA HUGHES 96 ERIKA ANDERSCH 97 SHA-RI PENDLETON 98 Back Issues Available 99 Special Offers EDITORIAL THE SLEUTHSAYER My hometown paper, The Washington Post, termed the 1996 Atlanta Games, "A gawkfest of sex appeal," while Vogue asked simply: "The Olympics gives us buff gods and goddesses performing at the limits of human capacity. Which would you rather watch?" God, that's a hard one... "Neither culturally, figuratively nor sexually has the woman who plays sports in America ever been accepted," Newsweek began its Olympic preview. "As it turns out, they ain't bad at it, the ladies {GO FIGURE!}. The American woman's team will, in fact, literally be the better half {we were trained to go all outfor BOTH halves}. It could be," Newsweekconcluded, "that this will be the summer that we decide that America's best ladies are the ones sweating." And their perspiration is our inspiration. These "Celebrity Sweathearts" helped make '96 the official "Year of the Woman" in Olympic sports. Gushdd gold medal softball pitcher Lisa Fernandez: "It was almost like we came together as one." And the official tally of those decorated athletes who "came together" in Atlanta was two...female competitors with pierced nipples, that is {including Fernandez's softball teammate Kim Maher}. All this exposure could mean exploitation. As Woman's Sports Foundation head Donna A. Lopiano warned, "Here are questions to ask in evaluating images of women in sports: Is she dressed like an athlete? Does she have all her clothes on? Does the picture focus on an inappropriate body part? and Do the words and pictures go together?" As always in SLEUTH, you'll find that the facts augment the figures. "The first Olympic athletes competed in the nude," Life magazine reminds us, "stripped completely bare beneath the awesome Hellenic sun. Apart from the obvious question—what did they do for sunblock?—the sight must have been inspiring, brilliant. It was meant to be." As is this... Proving our medal once again,