Q & A Amanda Beard
SI: Do youconsider yourself sexy?
Beard: No, not atall. You should see me when I wake up for morning workouts.
SI: Is beingnaked easy for you?
Beard: I thinkI'm a lot more comfortable being naked because my work attire is littleswimming suits. You get used to not being covered very much. I'm morecomfortable with a lot of skin showing than most people.
SI: If you wereHef, what other athletes would you want to have pose for Playboy?
Beard: AnnaKournikova, Maria Sharapova and Danica Patrick. Anna is gorgeous. And Danica isa bad-ass chick. She has a lot of male fans, so she would be perfect.
SI: Have you everautographed a naked photo of yourself?
Beard: I havenot. But I was thinking about that the other day. Do I open the magazine? Do Isign the outside? How is that going to work? I have no idea what it is going tobe like, but I always sign on my stomach. That's my area to sign. There's a lotof space between the top and bottom.
SI: What do yousay to the people who suggest that posing nude is sexist or reinforces negativestereotypes about female athletes?
Beard: I dosomething if I feel comfortable doing it, and if I feel my family will getbehind me on it, I couldn't care less what other people think. I work extremelyhard to get the body that I have, so I kind of want to flaunt it a little bitbefore it goes away.
Q&A Extras
For more from Amanda Beard, go to SI.com/extramustard.
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ALEXANDER TAMARGO/GETTY IMAGES (BEARD)
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