It's that time of year again! ESPN has just released yet another fiery series of photos of 2015's hottest male and female athletes. This is the 7th annual issue, and over the years we have seen many great athletes lay it all out for ESPN The Magazine such as Tennis Guru Serena Williams, NBA star Dwight Howard, Olympic Athlete's Lolo Jones and Ryan Lochte and many more posed in previous issues. This year, The Body Issue features 24 athletes from all ends of the playing field. Here is an inside look of some of the athletes that were featured this year.
Baseball: Bryce Harper
Harper says 'his body feels unbelievable'
"I worked hard this offseason to get my body where I needed to get it because, finally, I wasn't hurt. I was able to work every single muscle in my body head to toe. In 2013, I had the knee injury; the year before that, I just wasn't healthy. Now, I feel great. I feel light. My body feels pretty unbelievable. " I worked hard this offseason to get my body where I needed to get it because, finally, I wasn't hurt."
Gymnastics: Aly Raisman
In an exclusive interview, Ali spoke out about what its really like to be an Olympic gymnast.
"You work your whole life for a minute-and-a-half beam routine. I work out six days, 32 hours a week for the dream of competing at the Olympics again. Everything that I put into my body is for the purpose of gymnastics."
Swimming: Natalie Coughlin
Natalie opens up about her olympic swimming career.
"I was the first and only American to win six medals in all six events. I wanted to drop an event and my coach was like, "Absolutely not, you're doing it!" I won a bronze medal in the 200 individual medley -- I didn't even train for that event. I swam it as a joke a couple of times earlier that year and ended up breaking the American record and really surprising myself. "
Football: Odell Beckham Jr.
"My first love was soccer. A lot of my coaches from back in the day would say that I could have been in Europe right now playing."
Volleyball: Gabrielle Reece
Surfing: Laird Hamilton
The two athletes open up about how keeping in shape really pays off in the long run.
"Gabby and I are all about the doing. At the end of the day, our bodies are a reflection of a lot of work over a long period of time. There's no secret: You've got to put in the effort."
Hammer Throw: Amanda Bingson
Amanda discusses her personal issues she had with her body while she was growing up.
"I first learned the word "fat" when I was in middle school. I never knew that I was the fat kid in school until a boy told me that I was too fat. But everybody wants to fit that skinny ideal picture that we see on billboards all the time, and people would always remind me that that wasn't me. So you just grow a thick skin. Like I said, I'll still whip your ass if we ever got into a fight."
Tennis: Stan Wawrinka
He shares his perspective on how he views his own life.
" I have a Samuel Beckett quote tattooed on my arm. I got it a few years ago now: "Ever Tried. Ever Failed. No Matter. Try Agin. Fail Again. Fail Better." That's a little bit how I see life in general, but especially in tennis, because even if you play well, even if you're top-10, you still lose matches. So you need to accept that and take the positives from that."
To see more juicy photos from the 2015 ESPN Body Issue, click here.
