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Top 10 Sexiest and Hottest Women Athletes in the World
This a special selection of women athletes who have made a mark for them in a
particular sport and have created a buzz about them being the sexiest and
hottest athlete in their own mettle. This special selection is done based on
various parameters by the Women Fitness Team.
 Mariel Zagunis: Fencing: Mariel
Leigh Zagunis was born on March 3, 1985 in Beaverton, Oregon. She is an American
sabre fencer. She won the gold medals in the individual sabre at the 2004 Summer
Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics. She is the second American to win a gold
medal in Olympic fencing, and was chosen to be the flag bearer of the United
States at the 2012 Summer Olympics Parade of Nations.
Zagunis' parents, Robert and Cathy Zagunis, were collegiate rowers at Oregon
State University and Connecticut College, respectively. They both competed with
the U.S. rowing team at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Her older brother
Marten and younger brother Merrick also fence sabre. She grew up in Oregon and
attended Valley Catholic from kindergarten to 12th grade, and the University of
Notre Dame where she majored in Anthropology.
Zagunis is of Lithuanian heritage
Zagunis was the first American fencer to hold the Jr. World Cup Champion title
(2002), and she did so three years in a row (2002, 2003, 2004). She is the
youngest fencer ever to win the F�d�ration Internationale d'Escrime (FIE) World
Championship gold, and the youngest fencer to win three FIE medals in one
season. Zagunis won the FIE over-all medal three years in a row. She was the
first fencer in the history of the sport to hold more than two World Champion
titles in one season (2001: Cadet, Jr. and Jr. Team titles). She entered the
University of Notre Dame in 2004 on an athletic scholarship.
In October 2005, Zagunis won her seventh World Champion title at the Leipzig,
Germany World Championships, in the women's team event. A year later at the 2006
World Fencing Championships she won the silver, after losing the final to
Rebecca Ward. She is the second U.S. fencer in history to have won the World Cup
total-points Title from the FIE.
In 2009 Zagunis captured the last individual World title to have eluded her when
she won the World Championships in Antalya, Turkey, defeating Ukrainian Olga
Kharlan 15�6 in the final. She repeated as World Champion one year later, again
winning the individual sabre title, defeating the Ukraine's Olga Khomrova 15�11
in the final.
The Women's Sabre event was being contested for the first time at the 2004
Summer Olympics. Zagunis did not directly qualify to fence in the tournament.
However, Nigeria decided not to send their qualifying fencer to the tournament,
and as the next highest seeded fencer in the world, Zagunis was selected to
represent the United States at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
She received one of eight byes offered in the first round, entering the
tournament in the Round of 16, where she defeated Japanese fencer Madoka Hisagae,
15�13. In the quarterfinals, she defeated Elena Jemayeva of Azerbaijan, 15�11.
In the semifinals, Zagunis clinched at least a silver medal by defeating
Romania's Catalina Gheorghitoaia, 15�10.
Zagunis faced Chinese fencer Xue Tan in the finals, defeating her 15�9 and
becoming the first American to win an Olympic fencing gold medal in 100
years.Previously the only American Olympic fencing gold medalist was Albertson
Van Zo Post. In the 1904 Summer Olympics he had been the gold medalist in the
individual singlestick event and in the team foil event, where he had joined two
Cuban fencers to make up a combined Cuba/U.S. team.
Because fellow American Sada Jacobson had became the first U.S. woman to be
ranked #1 in the world in women's sabre (in 2003), the US Fencing Association
had touted Jacobsen as the potential gold medalist in the 2004 games, especially
at the Fencing Summer Nationals in Austin, Texas that same year. Zagunis' win as
the underdog surprised the elite in the fencing world. (Jacobsen earned the
bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics.)
In the women's sabre team event, the U.S. was heavily favored to win. Zagunis
teamed up with Jacobson and Ward to defeat the South African team in the
quarterfinals, 45�8.
In the semifinals, they fenced the team from Ukraine. The Ukrainian side, seeded
fifth in the tournament, defeated the favored U.S. team 45�39, denying them a
gold medal, and placing them in the bronze medal bout against France.
The U.S. team rebounded from their semifinal loss by defeating the French team
45�38 for the bronze medal.
On July 25, 2012, Zagunis was elected by the USA Olympic athletes to be the flag
bearer at the Opening Ceremonies.
Mariel Zagunis failed to win a medal at these games. Zagunis lost to South
Korea�s Kim Jiyeon, 15-13; then lost to Olga Kharlan, a Ukrainian, in the bronze
medal match, 15-10.
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Dated 10 December 2012
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