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Romain Barras, Champion of France.

Time to turn from the amazing bulges of Olympic divers I’ve been covering and take a closer look at a different sport, or at least at one of the bulges that competes in it. And when it comes to the Decathlon, there is no more gold medal worthy bulge the one that belongs to Romain Barras, the Champion of France. The rest of him is pretty damn hot too.

The 32-year-old hunk will be competing at the 2012 London Games, the third time he has appeared at the Olympics. Fortunately for us, his favorite pastime when not going for the gold is peeling off clothing for the photographers of the world. Of course when your track and field outfit leaves nothing to the imagination, there’s no reason not to sideline as a male model.

The hunky decathlete has an equally impressive record posing for the photographers of the world.

Romain is apparently straight, though you can never be sure with the French. He does, however, appreciate his gay fans and is flattered by their attention considering himself “lucky to have articles about me on the gay websites.” So we’ll consider him a friend until proved wrong and consider him a champion off the track too.

Good thing Romain is comfortable with appearing in gay publications since he’s been featured in DNA and was voted “Sexiest Athlete at the European Championships” by the French gay magazine Tetu. That honor coincided with Barras coming in first place at the 2010 event held in Barcelona and his response was, “It is better to first be good as beautiful. Today, I hope I have been both.”

The many bulges of Romain Barras.

Not that Romain relies on publications to do his hot body promotions for him. He appeared in the 2010 In Bed With calender that featured twelve of France’s hottest male bodies, a fund rasing benefit publication for the ELCS (Students Against AIDS) association that raised awareness and a lot more than just funds.

Romain admits he’s checked himself out on the internet, and likes that photographs of him are featured in galleries “surrounded by very beautiful guys.” Hot, hunky, and well-built, he has a sense of humor too, weighing in on one blog that, “I like the frankness and gay humor, for example, the photo where one said that I have a pole as big as this,” he said in reference to the photo caption. The blogger asked if his pole was that big. “No, no it is bigger,” Barras said laughing.

Barras, on vacation in Thailand, poses with a local religious icon that may be just slightly bigger than what nature has blessed him with.

Good thing Barras enjoys a laugh, his competition record just ain’t that good. We won’t be watching him at the London Olympics with hopes he scores a gold, it just ain’t gonna happen. In the two Olympic games he has competed in in the past he placed 12th and 5th. But then Romain would be the first to tell you it’s not just about winning. “Competition in the decathlon is not primarily against the opponent, it’s a fight against yourself. But of course we will look for adversity because it is source of inspiration, motivation to excel and succeed in pushing their own limits,” he says.

Nonetheless, Romain’s star has been rising in the world of the decathlon, a gruelling competition covering ten events: 100 meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400 meter run, 110 meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, and the 1500 meter run. Or as Romain puts it, “For decathletes, the competition lasts two days, two days of suffering, two days of effort, two days prepared for months in training, two days of fun and above all to live two days of exceptional human adventure.”

Barras is also known as Mr. September.

Since his fifth place finish at the Beijing Games. Romain set a personal best of 8313 points to win at the 2010 European Cup Combined Events in Tallinn, and at the 2010 European Championships in Barcelona the same year raised his personal bar to 8453 which earned him the gold medal. He attributes that win to not skill, but maturity. “Today was a good fight. So why did I win? Because I was the oldest and it was my turn to win,” Barras joked of his win. “The others, they are young, they still have time.“ he added in a fit of laughter.

It’s not just that Romain appears to carry his pole vaulting equipment with him that is responsible for his success on the track, according to his teammates it is a different anatomical peculiarity of his that deserves the credit. It seems the gods put all the effort up front; Barras has a flat ass. Team mate Nadir El Fassi said of his gold medal win in Barcelona, “Having the flat ass allows him to coast a bit, but in the decathlon today it allowed him to reach a new height, the turning point in the day.”

Barras’ bulge makes its commercial debut.

El Fassi and fellow team mate Florian Geffrouais grudgingly admit that Barras “is kind of handsome.” The trio’s closeness both on and off the field is evident in Romain’s reply to an interviewer about his win, “Today, I experienced a decathlon which could resemble the story of Alice in Wonderland. A beautiful decathlon of your dreams with ups and downs, with suspense amid a group of passionate guys.“

And passion is a recurring theme whenever anyone in the sport speaks of Romain. Says national technical director Ghani Yalouz, “Roman is a passionate, classy and clean. A guy fully invested, passionate about his discipline and dedication to all the guys around him practicing.”

YouTube has a treasure trove of Romain videos that feature both of his good sides.

More recently Romain joined fellow French Decathlete Quentin Jammier in a photoshoot for a new Athena ad campaign, called Butt Naked, in which the athletes and a few others appear naked. The print ads only show skin, but in the accompanying ‘Making of’ video Romain proves his infamous bulge is not an optical illusion (YouTube it now!).

Born in Calais, Barras’ father is a PE instructor who encouraged his brood to be athletic at an early age. He recounts how at the age of 2 1/2 his father set up a track in the hallway of the family’s apartment, some dozen yards long, replete with upturned shoeboxes as hurdles for Romain to run as quickly as possible. Barras says this was his first hurdle race and that today the hedges are one of his strong points in the decathlon.

There’s a good reason they went with a high back chair for this shot.

Romain says his father encouraged him and his siblings to participate in all track-related events, this is why he has chosen the combined events of the decathlon as his speciality. Remembering his days as a child athlete he says, “I always tried to make every possible test, first, because I liked a lot of medals to bring home and, secondly, with 3 hours before the bus would leave it allowed me to participate in a maximum number of events.”

When he is not competing or stripping down for photographers, Romain is a movie buff, with a wide range of taste in films. He lists Wayne’s World, Platoon, Children of the Marsh and Four Boys-Coming among his favorites (I’m not familiar with that last one and don’t want to Google it because I prefer making the otherwise obvious assumption). He also enjoys good novels, bad television, the sun, the beach, and chocolate. Among those things he is less than enthusiastic about he lists rain, being ill, spinach and zucchini, and athletes who fart.

How in the hell does he walk, much less compete, with that thing?

Training too is one of life’s pleasures for Barras. He admits his more recent record has been hampered by injuries. “I am still disappointed with my whole season. It does not reflect my abilities right now. My hip still bothers me over hurdles. The Achilles tendon, however, bothers me a bit more and really bothers me for jumping events (high, pole vault, long). So, since there are many parameters that play against me such as my repeated injuries, I do not aim for medals. My aim is rather to make the best “perfs” I have made in each discipline,” he says.

Romain’s most recent goal was a score that would land him a spot on France’s Olympic team, and that one he reached. He will begin competing on August 8th when the Decathlon kicks off with the 100 meter dash at the Olympic Stadium in London. Undoubtedly exhausted, Romain will finish his Olympic appearance the next day competing in the 1500 meter run, the last of his ten events. And then it’s back to the boys, the ‘brotherhood of decathletes’ that Romain says makes his sport so enticing. “The custom is that just after the 1500 meters all decathletes are welcomed into the arms of each other, the victors as well as the vanquished, a tower of good will celebrating together,” he says.

Even from the waist up Romain is a stud.

London may well be Barras’ final Olympic Games. A medal would be a nice way to finish his career though it is obvious that just the opportunity to compete with his fellow decathletes is enough for Romain. Regardless of where in the pack he finishes, Romain will surely be bulging out all over. And for that alone he deserves a gold medal.

Evidently after paying his sponsorship fees Adidas could not afford any product for Romain to wear. Shame about that.

[‘The XXX Games’ are a series of posts about hot Olympians, gay competitors – both present and past – and general articles about the 2012 London Olympics of interest to gay men. So, yeah, lots of hot male eye candy. Click the XXX Games graphic below for additional news, stories, and pictures.]

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