What is it about the male gymnasts?

[Heavyboom]

I'm not really a fan of the ripped male body, it seems a bit false and obvious to me normally.

But, the male gymnasts are something different. I could watch them for hours and it's not all about the skill!

Functional strength is more attractive than muscular bulk purely for the sake of
it. Also, most actors etc with ripped physiques get that way with steroids. All the lunks you see walking down your local high street with their guns out are also on gear - it’s absolutely rife among young men. Gymnasts are clean which produces a more natural physique. You do realise they are all absolutely tiny though right?

Yes, I've met Max Whitlock, he's local to me and about my height. He looks positively giant next to the other british gymnasts!

In addition to the peak fitness, I think the highly sexy attribute of being really competent at something.

Competence is 🔥 whether it's changing a tap washer efficiently or swinging round the apparatus.

The gymnasts are incredible on another level though.

They have worked all their lives for this. It’s not simply dumb luck. They don’t tend to be giant, entitled meatheads either.

I’m very shallow about superficial looks and I love a muscular toned man.

Not bodybuilder big though. DH is a weightlifter and does functional training every day. He’s more Hugh Jackman than Henry Cavill. He can bench press my body weight and that’s all I need to know

If you believe the gymnasts are clean I really don't know what to tell you 🤣

I'm more interested in that French swimmer 😳

I love the gymnasts. Shinnsuke Oka is a beautiful man (and half my age 😬). Also have a soft spot for the young Ukrainian who came fourth and looks a little bit like Tom Holland.

I was looking at the swimming yesterday and counting abs, as you do, because i read if someone, usually male, has 8 abs its because of steroids. All the swimmers have 6 abs.

So i am assuming the 8 abs thing is true.

We all have one 'ab' people just have lines in different places

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 (sorry OP). Linford Christie has recently spoken about how it affected him when everyone was obsessed with his “package”

I can dealift DH's weight I'm not sure how attractive he finds that...

We're all only human! If we didn't find each other attractive we wouldn't be here

Are they small because of the gymnastics? I learned that Simone Biles is 142cm.

I think you can find someone attractive without "perving" on them. These men are lovely to look at, I don't "want" them.

Of course, it’s natural to be attracted to physical fitness and they are top athletes. I just find it a shame when they are at the top of their game and people just want to discuss their bodies

Very happy to discuss the loveliness of the male gymnasts.. they are indeed fabulous

Can't help wondering what some of the responses would be to men commenting on the physiques of the women though..

I find olympic bodies fascinating generally. They are moulded by their activities which produces very distinctive shapes, some very attractive, some slightly odd. Like those one knee canoeists, they end up with one leg substantially more muscled than the other or the kayakers who have incredibly toned upper bodies but relatively spindly legs.

These are athletes who have worked hard to reach the pinnacle of their sport. Gymnastics is not only difficult, but incredibly dangerous as we saw with Felix Dolci's near miss yesterday. This thread created with the intention to drool and perv on them, rather than discuss the astounding feats they achieve is pretty tasteless and grim. Completely agree that if this was about women gymnasts - such as the stunning Melanie De Jesus Dos Santos - it would go down like a lead balloon.

I also find the 'but they're short' comments equally baffling, as if being under 5"3' is a bad thing...

On the issue of gymnasts generally being shorter, I think a few things contribute. Firstly, you need to lift your own bodyweight a lot so weight to strength ratio is a big thing and tends to favour those who are slight but strong. Secondly, when they grow, gymnasts sometimes need to relearn their skills due to changes in proprioception - I imagine this is very frustrating and is possibly less pronounced if you grow less? But probably the most important one is that gymnastics gives you amazing all round strength and functional fitness so taller kids doing gymnasts as part of a few sports may well switch to these. Many other sports e.g. swimming, football now actively discriminate against shorter kids as their height can be a disadvantage, but it isn't in gymnastics.

And another point - kids who do gymnastics seriously need to specialise very early on due to the amount of training hours needed. This means those who are good at other sports often drift away (generally taller, bigger kids will do better at an early age across sports like rugby and football)

Gymnasts are short for the same reason basketball players are tall, there's a physical advantage to being short.

Also, if you're short you can fit more of your body lengths onto the beam/mat/ less clearance between the bars.

Nope, I'm not a fan of the ripped look either, and that includes gymnasts. There are plenty of attractive actors, sportsmen etc who are very ripped, but I think they look better with their clothes on tbh! If I watch sport, I'm looking at their skills, not the attractiveness of their bodies though.

Shorter people have a better power to weight ratio, and a lower moment of inertia which makes it easier to spin in the air.