LatASIA

Well, I nearly spat my coffee out this morning when I opened the newspaper and was confronted by a picture of George W Bush on the 'beach' looking like he was about to pat some American volleyball player on the ass.  I thought that those days had gone since old Bill "Where's my Cigar" Clinton had vacated the Oval Office.

To be fair, President Bush did look more than a little awkward in the photo call, which begs the question, who is doing his PR for him?  Maybe it is his personal choice.  I used to work beside an old guy who was also in his final year before retirement and he too liked to wander about the place just doing whatever he liked.  So good on Bush for deciding to have some fun before he makes way for a new, perhaps not younger, man.

As far as the volleyball goes, I lived the quote from Luo Lu (any relation to that lassie from Glasgow?) who was quoted as saying:

This is the first time I have ever seen beach volleyball. It certainly is great to watch.  They are very sexy and have splendid shapes.  It is great to see so many beautiful girls....I wish I could get a ticket to come again.

I think Luo Lu has got it in a nutshell.  I have a gay friend who never misses the men's diving competition.  He loves it and yet he could not tell a perfect dive from belly flop!  He also cheers on the diver whom he'd most like to stare at over a candlelit dinner in a nice restaurant.  My Thai friend is besotted with Michael Phelps.  Yet again, she is not interested in swimming, and could not tell you how many gold medals Michael has won.  But she can tell you about why Michael is such a lovely guy and just what it is that makes him so handsome.

During the Euro 2008 Championships, I was one of many recipients of an email from a female friend in the UK which contained pictures of the Portuguese team all looking like models in their blazers and slacks.  These guys looked like supermodels and the email was clearly on 'express mail delivery" amongst woman and gay men.  Sex sells and is often the real reason why people tune in. Gay men love footballers (even Wayne Rooney gets a look-in if you google him along with the word gay).  Gay men, generally, do not like football and would kick and scream if you tried to take them to a game. Yet mention Ronaldo, Beckham, Ljungberg or Milan Baros to them and suddenly they become a guru!

So, it seems to me that a fair number of spectators and viewers are just like George W Bush.  They just want to hang out beside some sexy boys and girls in skimpy outfits that all go to make up the perfect eye candy.  Be honest, do you watch the gymnastics because it is your favourite sport or are you just trying to see which one of the boys or girls you'd most like to get jiggy with?  Do you really give two hoots about beach volleyball?  Can you name the Brazilian ladies team or are you only able to refer to the one with the big Danny DiVitos?

Sporting events like the Olympics, Euro 2008 and the World Cup all depend on sex to help sell the competition and get the type of viewing figures that they need to be able to extract the dollars from the hands of sponsors such as Coke, McDonalds and Visa. 

I am not saying that these events are all about sex, but I do think that a lack of sexy athletes would definitely lead to signficant dip in viewing figures. 

Finally, there are always exceptions to the rule and I freely admit that most woman and men would put the current US PGA competition into the "instant soft on" category!