Carol Alt Hockey Fan February 8, 1982

Carol Alt lives by the motto "Do something every day that scares
you." Wriggling her 40-year-old body into a denim Lycra bikini
for this year's swimsuit issue didn't fall into that category.
"I take tremendous care of my body," says Alt, who feels she
looks better now than she did 21 years ago, when she left
Hofstra to try her luck on the catwalk. In her career as one of
the world's highest-paid models, Alt has shown up on more than
700 magazine covers, including SPORTS ILLUSTRATED's.

A sun goddess no longer, she has ditched baby oil for botanical
oils--the kind found in the Le Mirador all-natural skin-care line
she has developed with the QVC shopping network. Alt is also
considering offers to act in two TV series pilots. "I'm focused
on making more sophisticated career choices," says Alt, who has
appeared in over 60 films and television programs in the U.S. and
abroad.

While in Toronto filming in June 1999, she met her boyfriend,
27-year-old Ottawa Senators center Alexei Yashin, at the NHL
awards banquet. Recalls Alt, "I saw Alexei from across the room
and thought, There's the most beautiful man I've ever seen." Alt
spent most of the next six months in Zurich, where Yashin trained
during a contract dispute with the Senators. Now dividing her
time between Los Angeles and New York, Alt says that distance--not
age difference--is her and Yashin's only hurdle. "We'll talk for
hours on the telephone," says Alt. "I've learned more about
hockey in the past two years than I did in 12 years with Ron."
(Alt is in the process of divorcing former New York Rangers
defenseman Ron Greschner, from whom she separated five years ago.
"He wanted children, and I wasn't ready," she says.) While Alt
hasn't ruled out the possibility of starting a family in the
future, she and Yashin enjoy their mutual independence.

She will, however, remind him to eat his veggies. "Last year he
asked me to help him get on my diet program," says Alt, who
swears by lots of greens, raw-milk cheeses and sashimi. "Alexei
used to be embarrassed to take his shirt off, and now he has the
most amazing body. I told him that if he eats right, he can play
hockey till he's 100." This model of longevity seems fit to give
that prescription.

--Kelley King

COLOR PHOTO: PETER READ MILLER

COLOR PHOTO: JOHN G. ZIMMERMAN (COVER)

COLOR ILLUSTRATION: ORNAMENTAL FRAMES BY JOE ZEFF

Alt met her beau, the Senators' Alexei Yashin, at the NHL awards
dinner.