Italy's Federica Pellegrini is the world's fastest female swimmer and her records have catapulted the 21-year-old to international stardom. The darling of Italian swimming, who became the first woman to swim the 400m in under four minutes, is far from camera shy and has posed nude on the cover of this month's Italian edition of Vanity Fair. Like other high profile European swimmers who are regarded as sex symbols by their adoring fans, Pellegrini appears topless and painted head to toe in gold paint.

German speed skater Anni Friesinger-Postma has turned up the heat with a sexy series of erotic pictures ahead of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Photographer Thomas Kettner is behind the work, which is called ‘Eye for an Eye’. And the photos are thrilling, erotic and imaginative. The Olympic gold medal winner is sometimes pictured alone, sometimes with Dutch speed skater Marianne Timmer (35). Despite being close rivals for 14 years, the two good-looking blondes are close friends off the ice. Anni (33) nearly showed all but she does have her limits: “I have already received lots of offers for photos of me naked, but it would be a step too far.” (Caught at Bild and Told at C&T)

Gold medal winning USA swimmer Amanda Beard has made a big splash! Beard peeled off her red, white and blue swimwear and bared all for a new PETA ad. The Olympian follows in the naked footsteps of Pamela Anderson and Eva Mendes, standing up and stripping down to protest the fur industry.

Natalie Gulbis is a professional golfer on the LPGA tour and is currently appearing on NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice working alongside such luminaries as Dennis Rodman. Literally the poster girl for sexy golfers, Gulbis has a best-selling calendar and made FHM Magazine's list of the 100 Sexiest Women of 2007. But she is in danger of becoming golf's Anna Kournikova—a beautiful, bankable woman who never wins. She has earned $2.6 million in five years as a pro, but no trophies.

Aussie swimming sensation and three-time 2008 Olympic gold medalist Stephanie Rice has been named the sexiest sportswoman in the world. Rice came in at No.30 in FHM magazine’s 100 sexiest women in the world in 2009, pipping Serbian tennis starlet Ana Ivanovic (32) for sport’s top spot. Rice is the best-known swimmer in the world without a personal swimwear sponsor. Rice has offers of more than 1 million dollars to wear certain brands of speedsuits.

Ana Ivanovic was named "thinking man's sex symbol" of 2008 by The Daily Beast. Ivanovic won the French Open this year and reached the finals of the Australian Open weeks before winning in Paris. Ana Ivanovic from Serbia is currently the fifth-best woman in the world. She’s got a mean forehand, is studying finance online as she travels the world winning tournaments, and is blowing men away with a butterscotch-colored face that’s all smooth slopes and haunting eyes.