ESPN Magazine's 2014 BODY ISSUE Round Up

 

NFL/Superbowl champ Marshawn Lynch is never in the mood to talk to the media. He said:

"I got to show some love for the fat backs. Don't matter if we don't get love, as long as I give mine."

"Even though I get butt-a-- naked, I'm still gonna let my body do the talking for me. I'm cool with my body, I love my body. I wouldn't trade it for no other body."

 

 

Venus Williams:

 

“I just kept cracking jokes and that definitely made it fun,” she said before adding, “I think I’m in better shape now. Hope we can do a reshoot.”

Venus told ESPN that her tall, lean body rejects muscle and bulk. “If I don’t go to the gym for a week, I just get thinner and thinner,” she said. “My body just doesn’t want it. I’m full of oil, I guess.” That makes it tough given her battle with fatigue due to Sjogren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disease she was diagnosed with in 2011.

 

 

First BMX athlete to ever be featured in ESPN Body Issue, Nigel Sylvester:

 

 

Posing nude is just another challenge for me. I challenge myself on my bicycle every single day. It kind of goes hand in hand with what I do as a competitive athlete.

My shins are so jacked up. We call them "shinners" -- when you don't land properly and the pedal snaps back and hits your shins. For years my mom would say I would never find a wife with shins like that. But it's just part of my body that I've given to my sport. Just me giving my love to my art. But yeah, they are pretty jacked up.

BMX riding breaks down racial perceptions. Coming from New York City and being a BMX rider, that isn't something that's too common. I feel like for the longest time, I would ride through certain neighborhoods and people would call me a "white boy" because they associated white boys from California with BMX riding, and it bugs me so much because I'm completely not that. I completely don't fit that mold. It's really important for me to bring BMX riding to the masses and show people exactly what it is.

BMX riders are not daredevils at all. Everything I do is calculated.

My body is a direct reflection of what my bike has given to me over the years. I'm not the type of person who would go to a gym and work out, but BMX riding for me is a full-body workout. Every time I bunny hop on my bicycle, I'm lifting up the bike, which is about 23 pounds in addition to my entire body weight. On a regular day, we're bunny hopping a couple hundred times.

 

 

 

Arizona Cardinals NFL player Larry Fitzgerald:

 

"I'm kind of shy, to be honest. If I go to the pool or something, I keep my shirt on unless I'm getting in the water."

"My hair is a silent tribute to my mom. She passed away 11 years ago from breast cancer. She was always fond of my hair when I grew it out in high school. Every day I wake up in the morning, I can say, "Mom, I'm going to go out there and attack the day to the best of my ability." Her voice is still on my voice mail. Her [driver's] license is always with me -- I keep it close at all times."

 

 

WNBA star Angel McCoughtry:

"I have a lot of corns on my feet. It goes back to growing up with big feet. I started getting smaller-sized shoes and squishing my feet into them so people would stop saying that I had big feet. I can't tell you how uncomfortable that was, always having my toes just scrunched into tiny shoes."

"To this day I regret ever doing that. Hopefully a little girl will see this and never feel bad about being tall or having big feet, because I really wish I never did that. God, I hate that I did that."

"When I get on the court, I don't feel like the same person. It's a different person coming out to play -- this aggressive, passionate person. Beyonce called her alter ego Sasha Fierce, so I got the idea to call myself Lori Ann. This was about two or three years ago. I thought it was a lot of fun, because when Lori Ann came out, she was aggressive and mean; she gets dirty. Lori Ann wants to win, she hates losing."

 

 

 

Major league baseball player Prince Fielder had no shame in his game.  His showed off his beefy physique saying:

"You don't have to look like an Under Armour mannequin to be an athlete. A lot of people probably think I'm not athletic or don't even try to work out or whatever, but I do. Just because you're big doesn't mean you can't be an athlete. And just because you work out doesn't mean you're going to have a 12-pack. I work out to make sure I can do my job to the best of my ability. Other than that, I'm not going up there trying to be a fitness model."

"I got some nice 22s. My dad has big arms, and everyone in my family has them, so it's just normal in my house. I had them when I was younger too, but obviously there was a little more cholesterol behind them [laughs]. They've always been big, just needed to fill them out with some solid stuff in there."

 

 

Olympic star Aja Evans: 

"As a woman, you can't cop out. When I was training for bobsled, I trained with my brother [Vikings DT Fred Evans], Matt Forte, Tim Jennings and a bunch of guys from the Bears. They're like "If you want to train with the big dogs, you better handle it." They made it fun, but competitive. That's what I always liked about their mentality: No matter how hard they can go on the field, off the field it's all love."

I was trying to stay with them pound-for-pound. I even went out on the field with them. I don't think I'd be a receiver -- they said I'm too girlie when I catch the ball. I'm like, "I don't want to break my nails."

"It's like athletics just run in my genes. I have a very seriously athletic family. My mom was a track and field athlete. My father was a swimmer. My brother plays DT for the Vikings. My uncle is Gary "Sarge" Matthews, who is the famous MLB player and coach from the Cubs to the Phillies. And my cousin, Gary Matthews Jr., is a phenomenal player as well."

 

 

 

Vetran boxer Bernard Hopkins:

"What's a diet? I don't have a diet. Jenny Craig got a diet. Seriously. I eat to live, not to die. Put that quote down there: I eat to live, not to die. A diet is going to win; it will every time."

"There is no secret. It's more of a discipline, more of a lifestyle. When someone sees me and they don't know anything about boxing, they never ever can imagine that I am almost 50 and competing and winning and a two-time champion headed to be three before the end of this year. It is well-documented how I treat my body. If you read Bernard Hopkins name in the dictionary, the definition would be "discipline."

 

ESPN Magazine's Body Issue 2014 hits newsstands Friday, July 11th.

Photos: ESPN