So, most of the Olympic conversation in the newsroom and the bars, at least from the folks not actively working Olympic stuff, goes something like this:
Coworker 1: "Hey, who's that?"
Me: "Who?"
Coworker 1: "That chick on your screen?"
Me: "Oh, that's Tanith Belbin/Gretchen Bleiler/Emily Hughes/Jennifer Heil."
Coworker 1: "Well, she's hot."
Me: "Yeah."
Coworker 1: "No, I mean it, she's totally hot."
Coworker 2: "Yeah, totally."

After about the third time this exact conversation popped up, I decided that it was OK to judge and root for Olympic athletes solely on their hotness.

And in the spirit of that, I present this slideshow, thoughtfully pulled together by the good folks at NBC, which has absolutely no interest in presenting the most photogenic athletes over and over and over again:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/news/5084544/detail.html

Note the lack of Lindsey Jacobellis, who managed to get major sponsorship/commercial deals despite a lack of a medal before the Games, and not being hot. Cute, in a little sister way, at best. Go figure. Even NBC, which insists that Sasha Cohen is mindbendingly hot and model-like (she's not) isn't pushing Jacobellis' attractiveness down our throats. (Note: It's not that she's bad-looking. She's just not HOT.)

Among my personal faves, figure skaters Carolina Kostner -- whose old relationship with figure skater Stephane Lambiel (a dude) made me curse him when he won silver this year -- Fumie Suguri, Yelena Sokolova, Alpine skier Tina Maze and the entire U.S. women's curling team.

Tanith Belbin almost makes my list. In most of the photos on the slide show, and most of the photos I've seen elsewhere of her in normal clothing and makeup, she makes my personal hot list. But there's something about the clothes and makeup she skates in that just turn me off.

These athletes are like one-night stands for sports fans; we just met Ms. Belbin in a bar called Torino, we've listened to her tales of new-found American citizenship, checked out her bod, and, well, we're liking what we're seeing and hearing. And after spending every waking moment of the next two weeks together, we'll go our separate ways no worse off than we were before, but perhaps with some crazy tales.

I'm feeling especially secure in this belief after being forced to watch ice dancing twice today. This is a crap sport. They don't even allow jumping or spinning. But it's mildly watchable just for the hot women. Especially since they've apparently relaxed the clothing rules, so some of the women can skank it up even more. While the men are left to wear tuxedos, for the most part.

A crap sport after my own heart, at least.