The perfect weapon–vicious talent, inhuman flexibility, super hotness–Anastasia “Nastia” Valeryevna Liukin reigns as star of the 2008 US women’s gymnastics team at the Beijing Summer Games.

With nine World Championship medals already in the bag–and a fresh Olympic gold, which she earned Thursday night in the women’s gymnastics overall competition–this 18-year-old comes from an immaculate pedigree, her father winning Olympic gold at the ‘88 Games on the horizontal bars for the Soviets, her mother a World Champion rhythmic Russian gymnast.

And on top of all those skills is a blond bombshell that makes us wish we were chalk boys…or something. But were not, so we did what we do best–a wall of split-rific pics of the all around awesomeness that is Nastia Liukin. And now, The Ass-ential Nastia Liukin.

Recently, we put together The Ass-Entials of Beach Volleyball, which covered the sport from a, uh, lower-angled perspective. But since then, we’ve actually watched the sport and realized it’s one of the greatest gifts to man this side of micro-brews and all-you-can eat BBQ.

So this time, we’ve gathered together all the women’s beach volleyball teams going to Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics into one ass-tastic round-up that’s sure to place this sport at the top of your must-see list. And not just because of the hot bikini bods–but mostly…

Check out The Girls of 2008 Olympic Beach Volleyball after the flip! Read More »

#6 University of North Carolina

Number of 2008 Olympians: 14

Sunny North Carolina owns the U.S. women’s field hockey team, with six of their olympians in Beijing for that sport alone. In fact, every single Olympian from UNC is female. This is the first Olympics since 1996 in Atlanta that the U.S. has had a qualifying field hockey team. And they snagged the 11th spot out of 12 teams chosen. But don’t fret, field hockey players are sometimes super hot, so now we can oogle over those ladies, instead of just the volleyball players.

Women (14)

#5 The University of California - Berkeley

Number of 2008 Olympians: (15)

Sneaking in the fifth place spot, UC Berkeley arrived in Beijing with gold(?), sliver and bronze medal winners. And in 2008, swimmer Natalie Coughlin already has three medals under her swimsuit, winning bronze in the 200-meter individual medley, silver in the 400 free, and gold in the 100-meter backstroke, bring her total medal count, for ‘o4 and ‘08, to eight. And that’s just what one of these Golden Bears can do.

Men (4)

Women (11)

#4 The University of Texas - Austin

Number of Olympians (16)

With seven repeat olympians, look out for Texas to dominate–or at least make a splash–in swimming, and hauling-ass in track and field. Former Longhorn Garrett Weber-Gale already helped the US team bring in gold and set world records in the nail-bitting men’s 400-meter relay. And Texas-Ex Cat Osterman continues to help the US softball team blaze their way through the competition, on their way to total world domination.

Men (11)

Women (5)

Source: NBCOlympics.com