It's our right as women to ogle Olympic hunks: We've been reduced to sex symbols for decades, men can't complain now: SALLY JONES
When Italian swimmer Thomas Ceccon accidentally flashed his abs during the medal ceremony for the 100m freestyle relay in Paris the other day, he almost broke the internet.
Along with French swimming sensation Leon Marchand – proud winner of four individual golds at his home Games – Ceccon is topping many red-blooded women's wish-lists as the Olympics spotlight focuses on the competitors' physical attributes as well as their sporting prowess.
A slew of media outlets has been compiling lists of the 'hottest hunks' at the games, while social media is awash with discussion of the greatest masculine heartthrobs.
Olympic superstar Daley Thompson, last man standing after a gruelling decathlon in Athens in 1982, aged 24. For Sally Jones his sheer aesthetic perfection of his muscled body and his deliciously arrogant demeanour, leavened by a mischievous twinkle in his eye, were irresistible
One TikTok user observed that Ceccon and his teammates looked like 'Calvin Klein models', while the general gorgeousness of the male bodies on display in Paris is the subject of a lively thread on Mumsnet.
Believe me, I get it. When Daley Thompson walked over to shake my hand before a friendly tennis game at The Queen's Club in London, my legs almost buckled beneath me.
As a young TV sports reporter, meeting my hero in the wake of his historic second Decathlon gold medal at the 1984 Olympics, I was awestruck.
I had interviewed plenty of amazing men with god-like physiques – from athletics sensations Carl Lewis and Linford Christie to tennis star Roger Taylor and cricketing legend Viv Richards.
But the sheer aesthetic perfection of Daley's muscled body and his deliciously arrogant demeanour, leavened by a mischievous twinkle in his eye, were irresistible.
Jamaican sprinter Kishane Thompson, 23, who tokk silver in the men's 100 metres
Italian swimmer Thomas Ceccon, 23, won a gold medal in the men's 100-metre backstroke
US swimmer Drew Kibler, 24, won silver in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay
I struggled, red-faced, to keep my composure and began with a brace of double faults. But, despite the rich pickings from sponsorship and endorsements thanks to his global fame and 'animal magnetism', Daley later confided that he loathed the focus on his drop-dead gorgeous looks and the tag 'The Sexiest Man Alive'.
'Aw diddums!' I thought, reflecting that most ordinary guys would kill for a fraction of the adulation the Olympian received, not to mention the financial rewards.
But not everyone appreciates such emphasis on their physical attributes rather than their sporting prowess, however heartfelt.
Sprinter Linford Christie objected strongly to the salacious discussion of his 'Lunchbox'. He felt such jokey banter had racist overtones and overshadowed his hatful of medals.
French diver Jules Bouyer, 22 (left), with his competition partner Alex Jandard, in the synchronised three-metre springboard event
France's golden boy, Leon Marchand, 22, won four gold medals or four events in Paris
Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina, 30, claimed a bronze medal
Now, thanks to the Olympics, a whole new generation of male stars is having to endure the kind of sexually-charged physical assessments women in sport, such as glitzy 1980s sprinter Flo-Jo to 1990s tennis sensation Anna Kournikova, have attracted from time immemorial.
Top choices include the ripped and limber American water volleyball team – meat-fed stud-muffins to a man – and the legions of swimmers and divers with that characteristic V-shaped physique, vast shoulders tapering down to trim waists and barely-there 'budgie smugglers' that leave virtually nothing to the imagination.
It is those impeccably-toned torsos that attract so much lascivious female attention, hips sporting that prominent diagonal V-lines (where the obliques meet the transversus abdominis muscle – only visible when you are superfit and have a very low body fat percentage). Olympics apart, rarely seen other than on classical statues like Michelangelo's David.
Florent Manaudou, 33, of France is a four-time Olympic medallist and picked up two bronze medals in Paris
US sprinter Fred Kerley is a gold medal contender for the men's 100m
Gymnasts, such as much-admired American Frederick Richard, are considered to be among the sexiest competitors (for those, in my view, who like their fellas resembling a perfectly-proportioned, hyper-muscly hobbit), as are surfers, like Brazilian Gabriel Medina.
Not to mention runners, including the fabulous Fred Kerley, who won bronze for Team USA in the men's 100m final on Sunday. So, given the increasing outrage over any comments on the physical appearance of female Olympians rather than their sporting performances, should their male counterparts be granted similar protection from debate on their physiques?
One Mumsnet user declared: 'I think it's a bit pervy for men to watch sports for women's bodies and comment on them, so I feel the same when women do it to men.'
I don't entirely agree. For bashful souls who have spent six hours a day throughout their formative years training in the pool, gym or volleyball court, pausing only to eat or sleep, this unexpected attention from female spectators must come as a shock, but there are lucrative compensations.
A string of female sports stars, such as tennis champions Maria Sharapova and Emma Raducanu, have amassed fortunes thanks to their good looks as well as sporting success, their rewards from modelling and sponsorship often dwarfing their substantial prize money.
Dutch swimmer Arno Kamminga, 28, whose colourful swimwear was one of the Olympics' top fashion moments
So, given the life-changing amounts on offer, it is a bit rich for anyone to complain it is now the men who are being physically objectified.
Maybe after years of 'ladies' bearing the burden of sex symbol status, it's time for the pendulum to swing the other way.
I suspect that for all the po-faced protestations on behalf of those impossibly good-looking chaps, they will be crying all the way to the bank.
