What sets an Olympian apart from the run-of-the-mill athlete is his superb conditioning. Which also means his fantastic body. And nothing is more fantastic than when they share that body in all of its full glory with the world. Summer Games Olympians are more often the top photographers of world’s choice when hired to shoot a naked spread of Olympic meat, though the boys of winter too occasionally get naked for the camera, like Apolo Ohno and Bode Miller.

The most impressive Olympic body to grace magazine pages in the buff, in my humble (and correct) opinion, takes me back to the summer of my youth when just hearing Greg Louganis’ name got me hard. The August 1987 issue of Playgirl featured a 7 page article on Louganis, with 5 pages of his gorgeous body for all to see (well almost all, Little Greg was camera shy). I can tell you the exact page count because I recently ran across my copy of that mag, till amazingly intact, and probably even more amazingly without the pages stuck together.

I posted a few of them back when I covered the London Games, but those were copies I’d found on the internet; their quality was what I’d expected of that issue of Playgirl after all the personal attention it got. So with fresh scans (with any odd stains photoshopped out) I’m reposting those along with all of the other nude shot he did for the magazine, along with what I’ve always thought of as his sexiest photo, that appeared in the May 1988 issue of GQ. And yeah, I’ve till got that one too.

I don’t get hard at the sound of Greg’ name anymore. Well, not often. But I’d still do him. And I sent a hate email to his husband when they got hitched last year.

Greg wasn’t the first Olympian to go au natural (and thank the god he wasn’t the last too). Italian Olympic skier Alberto “La Bomba” Tomba burst into the limelight at the 1988 Winter Games held in Calgary, where he won thee gold in slalom and giant slalom. He returned in 1992 at the Albertville Games, defending hi gold in the giant slalom and winning the silver in the slalom.

In 1995 he made headlines when he let hi little had peak out from behind his towel in a sauna, an event that was mysteriously captured decade before the invention of the iPhone. Which, you can see, was also decade before manscaping.

The big debate at the 1984 Los Angles Games was who was gayer, Greg Louganis or Carl Lewis. It was a tie until Greg came out in 1994. But Carl too came out, at least out of his clothes.

If you ever wondered what it is Kim Jong-un sees in Dennis “The Worm” Rodman, this photo from back when he was an athlete should clue you in. North Korea hasn’t seen meat like that since before the Korean War. Rodman, who famously once wore a wedding dress to promote his autobiography Bad As I Wanna Be, claiming that he was bisexual (and that he was marrying himself) played on the U.S. Olympic team at the Barcelona Games in 1992. As much a the IOC would like to forget that. Hi other tie-in with the Olympics if that rumor has it he’ll be coaching the North Korean National basketball team for the 2016 Games. And when he visits his bromantic buddy in Pyongyang, the North Korea Olympic Committee provide him with security and bodyguards.

Everyone knows Ali was an Olympic Boxer. So there’s a quick bar bet for you (Um, you may want to try it at a not-gay bar): Was Mike Tyson? Nope. He tried twice and was defeated both times so he never made an Olympic team. But since Mighty Mike did make an appearance once, I’m throwing him a bone and including hi photo there anyway. It looks like somebody was popular in prison.

Heavyweight Champion boxer never made it to he games either. He was dismissed from the Ukrainian boxing team and missed the Atlanta Games. But brother Vitali Klitschko did. The longest reigning IBF, WBO and IBO Heavyweight Champion in history first achieved world attention at the 1996 Summer Olympics. And then got even more attention when he posed naked with his bro.

Apolo Ohno’s nude shots for ESPN Magazine were not the first he did. Years earlier he took it all off for a GAP ad campaign too.

If brothers should do it, so should teammates. At least according to the French Olympic fencing team who may not have medaled at the London Games, but surely deserve accolades for showing off everything except the points of their swords.

ESPN Magazine’s Body Issue has become one of the top spots for Olympian who have no body issue to how their’s off. Hockey pucker Brad Richards appeared at the 2006 Olympics for Team Canada, and in the 2012 issue of EPN for Team Drool.

As did fellow rink star Ryan Kesler in the 2011 issue after playing for Team USA in the 2010 Games where he helped bring home a silver medal. Kesler’s hot body is also on the American national team at Sochi this year, hoping to win a gold.

Gay Times too has provided male Olympians a place to get naked in public. And while British Olympic gymnast Louis Smith has posed in the nude several times for publication, he kept his swimsuit on for the 2013 issue he was the cover model for. That’d be the issue when he said he’d go gay for Will Smith.

More recently – like this week – Louis has shown his love affair for g-strings, and manscaping, and selfies. Nice that he’s kept fans up to date on his body. Shame Danell Leyva hasn’t been doing the same.

And since I started this post off with a naked Olympic diver, let’s not forget that last year Chris Mears proved Tom Daley wasn’t the only little hottie in the locker room when he took it all off for Gay Times. Which is kinda ironic. And also quite sexy.

[‘The XXII Gays of The Winter Olympics’ are a series of posts about hot Olympians, gay competitors – both present and past – and general articles about the 2014 Sochi Games of interest to gay men. So, yeah, lots of hot male eye candy. Click the The XXII Gays of The Winter Olympics graphic below for additional news, stories, and pictures.]