Finely-honed athletes let world gaze upon results of hard work

SOME were nude, others were almost nude but they all made a splash yesterday as the latest “Body Issue” of ESPN Magazine showed some of America’s top athletes in all their power and glory.

A total of 22 sports stars, mostly American, posed artfully for the bi-weekly publication, the third year the Connecticut-based media giant unleashed such a project on the US public as well as online viewers who got an abridged taste of the bumper issue.

The cover stars for mail subscribers were last season’s NBA rookie of the year Blake Griffin, Olympic snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler and New York Mets shortstop Jose Reyes along with US women’s soccer team goalkeeper Hope Solo, who had the added privilege of sole ownership of the editions which hit newsstands across the nation.