"How 'Hottest Olympian' Did in London"

I really wish I was making that headline up, but unfortunately I'm not. That is one of the headlines on Yahoo. From time to time I'll go on Yahoo and read some of the stupid and pointless articles which they seem to call "news." They obviously have a much broader definition of news than I do. This is one of the headlines for one of their top stories, and I must say, this has to be a low point in journalism, even for Yahoo.

The 'Hottest Olympian' they're referring to is javelin thrower Leryn Franco of Paraguay and she didn't do very well in these Olympic games. In fact, she finished 18th in qualifying and didn't even make the finals in her respective event. I'll repeat that again... 18TH!!!!! Why on earth are we giving coverage to someone who didn't even do well in the qualifying event and who isn't American!? This feeds into the idea that women are valued for their physical appearance (Kim et al., 2007). This woman is very attractive, but she's competing in an environment based on athletic ability, not on physical attractiveness. I have no problem with a journalist mentioning that she's pretty, but I do have a problem with an article being written about her performance only because she is beautiful. Have you ever read an article about someone from another country coming in 18th place in a qualifying event? I know I haven't.

This sends the message to young girls that all that matters is your looks. It doesn't matter if you fail or succeed in what you do, as long as you look good doing it then you have value. The Olympics are supposed to be a time when the world joins together to watch athletes from all countries compete athletically. It's not about where you come from or what you look like. It's about striving to be the best athlete you can be and showing the world what you have trained your whole life for. To write stories based solely on the attractiveness of a female athlete isn't just sexist, it's lazy journalism.