Focus of attention

BEIJING -- Count on a lot of photographers focusing on Tuesday morning's qualifying round of the women's javelin.

The object of their objectives will be Leryn Franco, who won't be around long in the competition, given that she has just the 53rd best throw this season among the 56 entrants.

But it isn't often one finds a javelin thrower who was second in a national beauty contest and entered the bikini contest, where she certainly was a medal contender, as evident in these photographs.

Franco, 26, has been competing internationally for a decade.  She was 42nd at the 2004 Olympics.

-- Philip Hersh

Comments

[SickOfSexistOlympicsCoverage]

She's been competing for a decade and she's 53rd out of 56 ? You have to wonder what she's in it for.

[A fan]

She's in it for the competition. You don't crap out just because you might not be in the top four. Training to qualify in the olympics in your *own* country takes alot of time, money and effort. It's not something to be done lightly or carelessly. Stop being so bitter.

[theGM]

Now that she was eliminated let's see how long it takes to grace the cover of Playboy, FHM, and Maxim to name a few..

www.girlroster.com

[hi leryn]

probably not too long

[Why are you bitter?]

"She's been competing for a decade and she's 53rd out of 56 ? You have to wonder what she's in it for" - uhh she's top in her country. Would it be better if they said "gosh, you're one of our top atheltes, but you're hot, we'll have to go with second best so we don't get any publicity". Will she win a medal? No. But don't fault her for being attractive. Unfortunately, someone always has to be last (or close to), ugly or not.