A Gay Viewer's Guide to the Beijing Olympics

For gay men, the eye candy factor at any Olympics is stunning – well-conditioned athletes of all shapes, sizes and colors on display, in various stages of dress (albeit in sports we mostly ignore save for two weeks every four years).

It’s not the ancient Greek ideal of competing naked, but it’s not too far behind.

But with the Beijing Games starting today and featuring 302 events in 28 sports taking place over 16 days and generating thousands of hours of television, how is a gay viewer to know which events to tune into? Relax. We’re here with our highly selective guide to the Olympics to help you know which gay athletes (okay, the one out male athlete) to cheer for, which sports show the most skin, and a variety of other factoids and tidbits to make these your best Olympics yet!

Opening and closing ceremonies
No doubt, plenty of gay men will tune in to see the pageantry of the opening ceremonies on August 8 and not check back until the closing ceremonies two weeks later.

Film director Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern) is the creative mind behind the opening ceremony extravaganza. Not much has been leaked about the creative aspects of the ceremonies (secrets in China? No!), except that we should expect a lot of red. Both ceremonies take place in Beijing National Stadium, or “The Bird Nest,” which is exactly what the stadium looks like. And doubtlessly, more than one gay Chinese man will have had a hand in bringing that pageantry to life.

Date and time: The opening ceremonies will, famously, be on 08/08/08, and NBC will air them in primetime that night. The closing ceremonies are the night of Aug. 24.

Beijing National Stadium (a.k.a “The Bird Nest”)

Speedos leave little to the imagination
Many people think swimming when they think of skin in sports. But it’s diving that really delivers the goods. All divers wear the Speedo brief and stand erect at a platform 3 to 10 meters above the water. Canada’s Alexandre Despatie has such a strong gay following that he made the first annual AfterElton.com Hot 100 list back in 2007. A gold medal at the Beijing Games could send him springing back onto the list for 2009.

Event not to miss: If you only set your DVR to record one diving event, be sure to make it for the Men’s Platform finals on August 23^rd!

Alexandre Despatie

Then again, so do gymnasts’ tights
Gymnasts also show a lot of skin, wearing incredibly tight pants and tank tops, their muscles bulging as they soar through the air. Of course, they’re all barely above 5 feet, but they make up for it with possibly the most sculpted bods of any athletes.

In some events the gymnasts wear leggings (parallel bars), but in others many wear the shortest of shorts (floor exercise) as they jump, tumble, and do the splits. We give this event a perfect 10 out of 10.

Beach volleyball is also a must for shorts enthusiasts as are the Track & Field. And we’d be remiss if we failed to mention men’s wrestling, which simply oozes with homoeroticism.

Events not to miss: The all-around gymnastic titles will be decided live on the nights of Aug. 13 and 14 around 1am ET. In primetime, on Aug. 17 are the floor exercises, and on Aug. 18 is the ultimate test of strength: The rings. But as gymnastics is a featured sport, it will be in primetime most every night.