14 DAY TRIAL // The annual ESPN The Body Issue is perhaps one of the most anticipated and hyped issues of a print magazine but, as it turns out, not all professional athletes are itching to bare it all for the camera. Danica Patrick, for one, will pass on the opportunity for a few more years.
With people still talking (or raving, depending on how you look at it) about the most recent issue, which is also the first to include shots of 77-year-old pro golf player Gary Player, aka Mr. Fitness, Danica is not that impressed.
She tells Sports Yahoo that, while she’s been asked several times to pose for the magazine, she never felt the need to actually do it.
“I just never felt like that was something I needed or wanted to do. A lot of the stuff that I’ve done that has been scantily clad has all been swimsuit stuff,” she says.
Before anyone could accuse her of being a hypocrite (after all, she has been featured in several, pretty revealing photospreads so far), Danica explains the difference between one thing and the other.
“There’s a difference to me between going to the beach and wearing a swimming suit and going to the beach and wearing nothing or paint. That’s just pushing the limit a little bit... There’s already enough stuff that I do that pushes that. So, I’d rather stay in my full comfort zone than go that far,” she says.
However, not all hope is lost: Danica doesn’t rule out the possibility of one day agreeing to do The Body Issue, but she knows for a fact that it won’t happen too soon.
“I’m not saying there will never be a day. When I speak to them and they ask me each time I say, ‘Don’t stop asking. I don’t know. I might change my mind one year. And it might be something that parallels something else I’m doing, or where I’m at, or how I’m feeling.’ But just not right now,” she says.