Laura Moore voted sexiest woman of The Apprentice (UK) 2010

Perhaps it will be small comfort the day after being knocked out of the competition, but Laura Moore is the runaway winner of our poll to find the sexiest woman of this year's UK series of The Apprentice.  Sandeesh Samra was the runner-up, while Stella English - still in the competition and one of the favourites to win - finished third.  Here are the full results...

1 Laura Moore 29%
2 Sandeesh Samra 17%
3 Stella English 16%
4 Paloma Vivanco 14%
5 Liz Locke 13%
6 Joanna Riley 10%

Kara Tointon voted sexiest woman of Strictly Come Dancing 2010

In an incredibly tight finish, Kara Tointon has pipped last year's winner Ola Jordan in our annual 'Sexiest of Strictly' poll.  Ola was perhaps somewhat hampered by her early departure from the series this time round!  Aliona Vilani and Katya Virshilas (both still in the competition) were in third and fourth place respectively, while Kristina Rihanoff demonstrated her enduring popularity by finishing fifth in spite of an early departure from the show.  Here are the final results...

1 Kara Tointon 22%
2 Ola Jordan 21%
3 Aliona Vilani 13%
4 Katya Virshilas 12%
5 Kristina Rihanoff 11%
6 Tina O'Brien 7%
7 Flavia Cacace 6%
8 Natalie Lowe 3%
9 Pamela Stephenson 2%
10 Felicity Kendal 1%
= Patsy Kensit 1%

Poll : Sexiest Woman of The Apprentice (UK) 2010

In the last series, two beautiful women - Yasmina Siadatan and Kate Walsh (pictured) - fought it out for The Apprentice crown.  Will history repeat itself this year?  Just in case it doesn't, you can always vote for your favourite in our poll!  Here is the full list of contenders -

Joy Stefanicki
Laura Moore
Sandeesh Samra
Stella English
Paloma Vivanco
Melissa Cohen
Liz Locke
Joanna Riley

Scroll down the page to find the poll.  Multiple voting is permitted; the vote closes on December 1st.

Poll : Sexiest Woman of Strictly Come Dancing 2010

With veteran magician Paul Daniels as her celebrity partner this year, the chances of Ola Jordan successfully defending her Strictly title seem not a lot - but you'll like her. Perhaps so much so that she'll be able to defend her Euro Women 'Sexiest of Strictly' title instead? Kara Tointon and Tina O'Brien will surely be giving her a run for her money, though. Here are the full list of contenders -

Kara Tointon
Erin Boag
Ann Widdecombe
Aliona Vilani
Felicity Kendal
Flavia Cacace
Tina O'Brien
Natalie Lowe
Michelle Williams
Ola Jordan
Patsy Kensit
Kristina Rihanoff
Pamela Stephenson
Katya Virshilas

Scroll down the page to find the poll. You can vote for as many of the women as you wish; the vote closes on December 1st.

Are Glamour Girls Always Dealt the Losing Hand on Reality TV?

Archive article : first appeared in Telewatcher in early 2009

One of my guilty pleasures in life whenever Big Brother is running on TV is to read the acres of often unintentionally hilarious comment the series generates on the online forums. On the launch-night of Celebrity Big Brother 2009, the response to Page 3 girl Lucy Pinder’s entry into the house was especially intriguing. Historically, models – and especially glamour models – have done particularly badly on both Big Brother and the celebrity version. But in this case, the initial feedback was startlingly favourable, with many women making approving comparisons with Melinda Messenger (a previous glamour model contestant on the show), principally on the grounds that Pinder was following Messenger’s example in keeping her body ‘well covered up’. This is seemingly the main criteria for a topless model to be accepted by a female audience, and such acceptance is all-important – because the vast majority of those who take part in the show’s eviction votes are thought to be women.

So far, so good for Lucy Pinder, then. But within a matter of a few days, the mood on the forums had turned on its head, in a seemingly inexplicable way. Suddenly, Pinder was being charged with hypocrisy for precisely the same reason she had been so lauded at the outset. By stubbornly keeping her body so firmly under wraps, the argument went, she was treating the very thing she did for a living with disdain, and by extension was treating the loyal fans who had created such demand for her steamy pictures with equal disdain. This perception, as Pinder would herself acknowledge, played a large part in her early departure from the show. But the viewers’ change of heart seemed on the face of it to be fairly typical of the fickle attitudes of those who inhabit the forums. Now that Pinder has been evicted, however, it’s become clear with hindsight that rather more was going on than met the eye – and the show’s producers played a large part in engineering the chain of events that unfolded.

The turning-point in Pinder’s fortunes started with the all-too-predictable revelation that there would be a ‘twist’ on the normal method of nominating housemates for eviction. Only ‘Head of House’ Terry Christian would be permitted to nominate, and one of those nominations would be based on his assessment of which of his fellow housemates had exhibited the least talent during a session in which they were each required to give a demonstration of whatever had made them famous. So the two actors were required to do a spot of acting, the five singers (including, among others, La Toya Jackson) were required to sing, the politician Tommy Sheridan was required to address the housemates in public meeting style, and the one-time TV weathergirl Ulrika Jonsson was required to deliver a weather forecast. But there was a discernible frisson in the air when the penny started to drop about what this unmistakable logic might mean for Pinder – could she really be required to demonstrate her ‘talent’ for posing topless? Unsurprisingly, the answer was no – or, at least, so it appeared at the time. Instead, she was invited to do something seemingly unrelated to her line of work – a presentation on, among other things, her reason for disliking the Labour Party. The only nod to her career outside the house was that the item was dubbed ‘Lucy’s News in Briefs’ and she was provided with a special pair of ‘briefs’ to wear, leaving her legs on display for the duration of the presentation. But even this wheeze seemed somewhat illogical for a topless model, given that it left her top-half covered up.

Unsurprisingly then, Pinder’s performance was by some distance the least captivating of all the celebrities, and the Head of House was left with little choice but to nominate her on that basis. It was at this point that the murmurs on the forums began – it was her own fault, some suggested, for not engaging with the true ‘spirit’ of the task by disrobing a little more during her presentation. After all, how else could she be said to be demonstrating what had made her a celebrity? At face value, this appeared to be a totally unfair criticism. The producers had set her an apparently very specific task which she had fulfilled to the best of her ability. Indeed, a fairer charge seemed to be that the producers had stitched her up, and made it inevitable due to her unequal role in the task that she would be nominated for eviction.

But a somewhat different picture emerged during Pinder’s post-eviction interview. The host Davina McCall spent much of the exchange persistently – albeit semi-jokingly – demanding to know why Pinder had so stubbornly failed to take her clothes off during her stay in the house, and specifically challenged her to explain why she hadn’t at least stripped to her bra during the ‘talent’ task. And suddenly the strange realisation dawned about the true nature of the task the producers had set Pinder – it had in fact been devised as a huge tease. The only costume requirement that had actually been specified was that she wear the ‘briefs’ provided, but contrary to initial on-screen impressions, how much else she wore was entirely left to her own discretion. She could in fact have worn nothing else if she had wished, and it appears that the producers thought there was at least a chance that she might actually take that option. Essentially they provided her with a huge dilemma, and by leaving enough ambiguity in the stated rules left her enough rope to either hang or save herself. By stripping off, she could have dodged the first eviction by avoiding being branded the ‘least talented’ – but in doing so she would have risked the familiar wrath of the predominantly female viewing audience. So while this dilemma was entirely artificial and contrived, it nevertheless neatly encapsulated the problem virtually every pin-up girl will face in any ‘celebrity’ reality TV show – because they essentially just have famous bodies, while all their fellow contestants are famous as people. The fact that so few people even knew what Lucy Pinder’s voice sounded like before she entered the show is testament enough to that.

Perhaps the only solution is for the producers to stop playing games and to be much more up-front about the blindingly obvious reality of why women like Pinder are always signed up for the show. Maybe it should even have been written into her highly lucrative contract that she was fully expected to ‘sex up’ the programme, something that was clearly the unspoken expectation in any case. And, while a certain section of the viewing public would doubtless still disapprove, a more direct approach might lead them to focus their ire more on the producers, and show a little more tolerance to the model herself.

Maria Kirilenko voted hottest woman of Wimbledon 2010

It slipped my mind to tally up the votes at the time, but better late than never! Here are the top five in our 'hottest woman of Wimbledon 2010' poll...

1 Maria Kirilenko
2 Ana Ivanovic
= Maria Sharapova
4 Daniela Hantuchova
5 Sofia Arvidsson

Poll : Hottest Woman of Wimbledon 2010

It's that strawberries-and-cream time of the year once again as Wimbledon gets underway, providing the cue for the biggest ever poll on this site! You can vote for ANY of the 128 players in the women's singles draw, and as many of them as you like. Here is the full list of contenders -

Michelle Larcher De Brito

Serena Williams

Andrea Petkovic

Tamarine Tanasugarn

Ayumi Morita

Anna Chakvetadze

Dominika Cibulkova

Lucie Safarova

Daniela Hantuchova

Vania King

Barbora Zahlavova Strycova

Elena Vesnina

Ioana Raluca Olaru

Alize Cornet

Anastasia Pivovarova



Maria Sharapova

Caroline Wozniacki

Tathiana Garbin

Arantxa Rus

Kai-Chen Chang

Sybille Bammer

Roberta Vinci

Iveta Benesova

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

Jie Zheng

Pauline Parmentier

Sorana Cirstea

Petra Kvitova

Bojana Jovanovski

Casey Dellacqua

Mirjana Lucic

Victoria Azarenka

Flavia Pennetta

Anabel Medina Garrigues

Monica Niculescu

Gisela Dulko

Klara Zakopalova

Yvonne Meusburger

Magdalena Rybarikova

Aravane Rezai

Alexandra Dulgheru

Kimiko Date Krumm

Romina Sarina Oprandi

Heather Watson

Timea Bacsinszky

Edina Gallovits

Kaia Kanepi

Samantha Stosur

Kim Clijsters

Maria Elena Camerin

Karolina Sprem

Bethanie Mattek-Sands

Shenay Perry

Anastasiya Yakimova

Stefanie Voegele

Maria Kirilenko

Justine Henin

Anastasija Sevastova

Kristina Barrois

Mariya Koryttseva

Yung-Jan Chan

Patty Schnyder

Tatjana Malek

Nadia Petrova

Yanina Wickmayer

Alison Riske

Stephanie Dubois

Kirsten Flipkens

Noppawan Lertcheewakarn

Andrea Hlavackova

Nuria Llagostera Vives

Vera Zvonareva

Alona Bondarenko

Katie O'Brien

Lucie Hradecka

Varvara Lepchenko

Eleni Daniilidou

Aleksandra Wozniak

Laura Robson

Jelena Jankovic

Francesca Schiavone

Vera Dushevina

Tsvetana Pironkova

Anna Lapushchenkova

Regina Kulikova

Melanie South

Polona Hercog

Yaroslava Shvedova

Kateryna Bondarenko

Greta Arn

Zuzana Kucova

Alicia Molik

Petra Martic

Elena Baltacha

Julia Goerges

Marion Bartoli

Shahar Peer

Ana Ivanovic

Sania Mirza

Angelique Kerber

Renata Voracova

Jarmila Groth

Anna-Lena Groenefeld

Melanie Oudin

Alisa Kleybanova

Sandra Zahlavova

Sofia Arvidsson

Alla Kudryavtseva

Ekaterina Makarova

Agnes Szavay

Rossana De Los Rios

Venus Williams

Paula Seling voted sexiest woman of Eurovision 2010

Romania's Paula Seling, who finished third in Eurovision 2010 alongside her compatriot Ovi, has won a decisive victory in our third annual poll to find the sexiest woman of the contest. In second place is the victorious German singer Lena Meyer-Landrut, while Armenia's Eva Rivas is in third - no doubt assisted by the strategic close-up of her cleavage at the start of her live performance on Saturday! Here are the full results...

1 Paula Seling (Romania) 21%
2 Lena Meyer-Landrut (Germany) 12%
3 Eva Rivas (Armenia) 11%
4 Filipa Azevedo (Portugal) 10%
5 Juliana Pasha (Albania) 9%
6 Kristína Peláková (Slovakia) 7%
7 Sopho Nizharadze (Georgia) 6%
8 Safura Alizadeh (Azerbaijan) 5%
= Sieneke Peeters (Netherlands) 5%
10 Anna Henrietta Bergendahl (Sweden) 4%
11 Niamh Kavanagh (Ireland) 2%
12 Pamela Ramljak (Croatia) 1%
= Alyosha (Ukraine) 1%
= Christina Chanée (Denmark) 1%
= Yulia Shisko (Belarus) 1%
= Aisha (Latvia) 1%
= Johanna Virtanen (Finland) 1%
= Susan Aho (Finland) 1%
= Olia Tira (Moldova) 1%

The previous winners of the poll were Greece's Kalomira in 2008, and Turkey's Hadise in 2009.

Poll : Sexiest Woman of Eurovision 2010

So here we go again with the third running of our annual 'sexiest of Eurovision' poll! Will it be yet another close run thing, after razor-thin victories for Greece's Kalomira in 2008, and Turkey's Hadise in 2009? Here is the full list of contenders, in the order they will first perform in the contest -

Olia Tira (Moldova)
Kristína Peláková (Slovakia)
Susan Aho (Finland)
Johanna Virtanen (Finland)
Aisha (Latvia)
Thea Garrett (Malta)
Juliana Pasha (Albania)
Filipa Azevedo (Portugal)
Yulia Shisko (Belarus)
Alyona Karpovich (Belarus)
Ninel Karpovich (Belarus)
Hera Björk (Iceland)
Eva Rivas (Armenia)
Christina Chanée (Denmark)
Anna Henrietta Bergendahl (Sweden)
Safura Alizadeh (Azerbaijan)
Alyosha (Ukraine)
Sieneke Peeters (Netherlands)
Paula Seling (Romania)
Kalamari singer (Slovenia)
Niamh Kavanagh (Ireland)
Sylvia Strand (Cyprus)
Katherine Squire (Cyprus)
Neda Parmać (Croatia)
Pamela Ramljak (Croatia)
Nika Antolos (Croatia)
Sopho Nizharadze (Georgia)
Lena Meyer-Landrut (Germany)

Rather annoyingly, I couldn't track down the name of the Slovenian singer, but hopefully I'll work it out in time for the results. Multiple voting is permitted this time - hopefully this will dilute the effect of voting along national lines, which has been a problem in the past. As ever, vote wisely!

Eve Muirhead voted sexiest woman of 2010 World Curling Championships

She may have missed out on the chance of a first world title in agonising fashion, but Scottish skip Eve Muirhead was the clear winner of our poll to find the sexiest competitor of the Swift Current tournament. In second and third place were two Scandinavian skips - Linn Githmark of Norway and Cecilia Östlund of Sweden respectively. The winner of last year's poll, Canadian skip Jennifer Jones, was fourth, while Danish lead Camilla Jensen failed to repeat her strong showing in the Olympic poll a few weeks ago.

Here are the final results -

1 Eve Muirhead (Scotland) 23
2 Linn Githmark (Norway) 14
3 Cecilia Östlund (Sweden) 12
4 Jennifer Jones (Canada) 11
5 Lotta Lennartsson (Sweden) 8
6 Sarah Reid (Scotland) 6
7 Anna Sidorova (Russia) 5
= Ludmila Privivkova (Russia) 5
9 Camilla Jensen (Denmark) 4
= Madeleine Dupont (Denmark) 4
11 Melanie Robillard (Germany) 3
12 Kristin Skaslien (Norway) 2
= Erika Brown (USA) 2
14 Stella Heiß (Germany) 1
= Dawn Askin (Canada) 1
= Ekaterina Galkina (Russia) 1
= Sara Carlsson (Sweden) 1
= Ann Swisshelm (USA) 1
= Lorna Vevers (Scotland) 1
= Kelly Wood (Scotland) 1
= Wang Bingyu (China) 1

Poll : Sexiest Woman of 2010 World Curling Championships

The 2010 women's world curling championships are now well under way in Swift Current, and once again we're asking you to vote for the sexiest competitor. The winner of the Olympic poll, the USA's Natalie Nicholson, isn't present this time. However, three of the top five from that poll are competing - Denmark's Camilla Jensen and Madeleine Dupont, and Scotland's Eve Muirhead. Also back into the fray is the winner of last year's world championship poll, home skip Jennifer Jones of Canada. Another strong contender this time round may be a woman who did not feature in either poll, Norwegian skip Linn Githmark - one of several of this week's competitors to have appeared nude in Ana Arce's famous series of calendars.

Here is the full list to choose from -

Wang Bingyu (China)
Liu Yin (China)
Yue Qingshuang (China)
Zhou Yan (China)
Zhang Xindi (China)
Iveta Staša-Šaršūne (Latvia)
Una Grava-Germane (Latvia)
Ieva Krusta (Latvia)
Zanda Bikše (Latvia)
Dace Munča (Latvia)
Eve Muirhead (Scotland)
Kelly Wood (Scotland)
Lorna Vevers (Scotland)
Anne Laird (Scotland)
Sarah Reid (Scotland)
Erika Brown (USA)
Nina Spatola (USA)
Ann Swisshelm (USA)
Laura Hallisey (USA)
Jessica Schultz (USA)
Cecilia Östlund (Sweden)
Sara Carlsson (Sweden)
Anna Domeij (Sweden)
Lotta Lennartsson (Sweden)
Sabrina Kraupp (Sweden)
Linn Githmark (Norway)
Henriette Løvar (Norway)
Ingrid Stensrud (Norway)
Kristin Skaslien (Norway)
Kristin Tøsse-Løvseth (Norway)
Ludmila Privivkova (Russia)
Anna Sidorova (Russia)
Nkeiruka Ezekh (Russia)
Ekaterina Galkina (Russia)
Margarita Fomina (Russia)
Madeleine Dupont (Denmark)
Denise Dupont (Denmark)
Angelina Jensen (Denmark)
Camilla Jensen (Denmark)
Ivana Bratic (Denmark)
Binia Feltscher (Switzerland)
Corinne Bourquin (Switzerland)
Heike Schwaller (Switzerland)
Sandra Ramstein-Attinger (Switzerland)
Marisa Winkelhausen (Switzerland)
Moe Meguro (Japan)
Anna Ohmiya (Japan)
Mari Motohashi (Japan)
Kotomi Ishizaki (Japan)
Mayo Yamaura (Japan)
Jennifer Jones (Canada)
Cathy Overton-Clapham (Canada)
Jill Officer (Canada)
Dawn Askin (Canada)
Jennifer Clark-Rouire (Canada)
Andrea Schöpp (Germany)
Melanie Robillard (Germany)
Monika Wagner (Germany)
Stella Heiß (Germany)
Corinna Scholz (Germany)

As ever, vote wisely!

Natalie Nicholson voted sexiest woman of the 2010 Olympic curling tournament

Assisted by an apparent coordinated effort by supporters of Celtic football club in Scotland (!), American lead Natalie Nicholson is the surprise runaway winner of our Olympic curling poll. There were many twists and turns during the course of the voting, with Denmark's Madeleine Dupont taking an early lead, while Nicholson failed to secure a single vote in the early days. But once the Nicholson juggernaut got underway, Dupont started to fade quite badly, and her Danish team-mate Camilla Jensen began to look like the best bet to deny Nicholson the crown. Indeed, Jensen did briefly sneak into the lead, but then there was another huge influx of Celtic-fans-for-Nicholson (beats me), at which point the lead became unassailable. Jensen did however secure second place, holding on in spite of a late flurry of votes for Switzerland's Carmen Schäfer - probably a reflection of the fact that Switzerland reached the medal matches and Denmark did not. Scotland's Eve Muirhead (nominally representing Great Britain for the purposes of the Olympics) followed up her third place in last year's World Championships poll by pipping Madeleine Dupont for fourth place.

Hear are the full results. As the number of votes cast was so huge this time round, I've listed the actual number of votes for each woman, rather than percentages -

1 Natalie Nicholson (USA) 188
2 Camilla Jensen (Denmark) 151
3 Carmen Schäfer (Switzerland) 143
4 Eve Muirhead (Great Britain) 97
5 Madeleine Dupont (Denmark) 94
6 Cheryl Bernard (Canada) 37
7 Ludmila Privivkova (Russia) 36
= Melanie Robillard (Germany) 36
9 Nicole Joraanstad (USA) 34
10 Anna le Moine (Sweden) 28
11 Eva Lund (Sweden) 24
12 Anna Sidorova (Russia) 21
13 Janine Greiner (Switzerland) 20
14 Ekaterina Galkina (Russia) 17
15 Debbie McCormick (USA) 16
16 Denise Dupont (Denmark) 15
17 Margarita Fomina (Russia) 14
18 Jackie Lockhart (Great Britain) 12
19 Anna Ohmiya (Japan) 11
= Carmen Küng (Switzerland) 11
21 Stella Heiß (Germany) 10
22 Kajsa Bergström (Sweden) 9
= Angelina Jensen (Denmark) 9
24 Allison Pottinger (USA) 8
= Ane Hansen (Denmark) 8
26 Lorna Vevers (Great Britain) 7
27 Mirjam Ott (Switzerland) 6
= Mari Motohashi (Japan) 6
29 Anette Norberg (Sweden) 4
= Susan O'Connor (Canada) 4
31 Wang Bingyu (China) 3
= Kelly Wood (Great Britain) 3
33 Kotomi Ishizaki (Japan) 2
= Nkeiruka Ezekh (Russia) 2
35 Cathrine Lindahl (Sweden) 1
= Corinna Scholz (Germany) 1
= Mayo Yamaura (Japan) 1
= Moe Meguro (Japan) 1
= Irene Schori (Switzerland) 1
= Tracy Sachtjen (USA) 1

An astonishing 753 sets of votes were cast in total - but as multiple voting was permitted, the number of individual votes cast adds up to far more.

We also ran two other Winter Olympic-themed polls. Here are the results -

Sexiest woman of 2010 Olympic ice dance

1 Tessa Virtue (Canada) 16
2 Sinead Kerr (Great Britain) 13
3 Tanith Belbin (USA) 10
4 Nora Hoffmann (Hungary) 7
= Oksana Domnina (Russia) 7
6 Penny Coomes (Great Britain) 4
7 Isabelle Delobel (France) 2
= Vanessa Crone (Canada) 2
= Anna Cappellini (Italy) 2
= Emily Samuelson (USA) 2
11 Allison Reed (Georgia) 1
= Nathalie Pechalat (France) 1

35 sets of votes were cast in total.

Hottest woman of 2010 Olympic ladies' figure skating event

1 Kiira Korpi (Finland) 10
2 Sonia Lafuente (Spain) 7
3 Sarah Meier (Switzerland) 5
4 Joannie Rochette (Canada) 4
= Laura Lepisto (Finland) 4
6 Julia Sebestyen (Hungary) 3
7 Ksenia Makarova (Russia) 2
= Elene Gedevanishvili (Georgia) 2
= Isabelle Pieman (Belgium) 2
10 Cynthia Phaneuf (Canada) 1
= Miki Ando (Japan) 1
= Anna Jurkiewicz (Poland) 1
= Kim Yu-Na (South Korea) 1

25 sets of votes were cast in total.

Eurovision sexiest 2010 - the one that got away

Kristīna Zaharova of Latvia

Looking ahead to our annual 'sexiest woman of Eurovision' poll later in the year, it's such a pity that the song Snow in July didn't win the Latvian preselection on Saturday, as singer Kristīna Zaharova would have been sure to be a contender (for the poll rather than for the Eurovision itself!). Instead, Aisha and her song What For? goes forward to Oslo, and it'll be interesting to see how both she and her beautiful backing performers fare in the poll when it opens.

Poll : Hottest Woman of the 2010 Olympic Ladies' Figure Skating Competition

As promised, here is the third of our Winter Olympic-related polls. As with the curling and ice dance polls, all of the competitors in the ladies' singles event are included. Here is the full list -

Kiira Korpi (Finland)
Laura Lepisto (Finland)
Cynthia Phaneuf (Canada)
Joannie Rochette (Canada)
Elena Glebova (Estonia)
Julia Sebestyen (Hungary)
Mao Asada (Japan)
Akiko Suzuki (Japan)
Miki Ando (Japan)
Cheltzie Lee (Australia)
Isabelle Pieman (Belgium)
Miriam Ziegler (Austria)
Liu Yan (China)
Elene Gedevanishvili (Georgia)
Anastasia Gimazetdinova (Uzbekistan)
Sarah Meier (Switzerland)
Mirai Nagasu (USA)
Rachael Flatt (USA)
Tugba Karademir (Turkey)
Sonia Lafuente (Spain)
Teodora Postic (Slovenia)
Ivana Reitmayerova (Slovakia)
Ksenia Makarova (Russia)
Alena Leonova (Russia)
Anna Jurkiewicz (Poland)
Kwak Min-Jung (South Korea)
Kim Yu-Na (South Korea)
Carolina Kostner (Italy)
Jenna McCorkell (Great Britain)
Sarah Hecken (Germany)

As with the other Winter Olympic polls, you can vote for more than one favourite if you wish. Oh, and in case you're wondering, you can find the voting form by scrolling down the page!

Curling poll update (Monday afternoon) : Midway through the voting, an incredible 465 sets of votes have been cast - that's already about two-and-a-half times as many as we had for last year's world championship poll. Having not received a single vote in the early stages, American lead player Natalie Nicholson has stormed into first place, although she still has Danish counterpart Camilla Jensen on her tail. Early leader Madeleine Dupont is now trailing somewhat in third place, and is in danger of being overtaken by British skip Eve Muirhead (who finished third in last year's world championship poll). Switzerland's Carmen Schäfer (second last year) is in fifth place.

Poll : Sexiest Woman of 2010 Olympic Ice Dance Competition

As a complement to our curling poll, here is the first of a couple more Winter Olympic-themed polls. The ice dance competition gets underway tomorrow, and you can vote for any of the twenty-three female competitors. To find the voting form, scroll down to below the curling poll. Here is the full list of contenders -

Sinead Kerr (Great Britain)
Penny Coomes (Great Britain)
Nathalie Pechalat (France)
Isabelle Delobel (France)
Oksana Domnina (Russia)
Jana Khokhlova (Russia)
Ekaterina Bobrova (Russia)
Cathy Reed (Japan)
Tessa Virtue (Canada)
Vanessa Crone (Canada)
Huang Xintong (China)
Anna Zadorozhniuk (Ukraine)
Federica Faiella (Italy)
Anna Cappellini (Italy)
Nora Hoffmann (Hungary)
Christina Beier (Germany)
Allison Reed (Georgia)
Meryl Davis (USA)
Emily Samuelson (USA)
Tanith Belbin (USA)
Alexandra Zaretsky (Israel)
Irina Shtork (Estonia)
Kamila Hájková (Czech Republic)

As with the curling poll, you can vote for more than one favourite. Vote wisely!

Curling poll update (early Thursday morning) : In the early stages of voting, Danish team-mates Camilla Jensen and Madeleine Dupont hold a joint lead with twenty-nine votes apiece, with Switzerland's Carmen Schaefer in third with twenty votes. Doubtlessly all three have been assisted by their nude appearances in Ana Arce's series of curling calendars!

Poll : Sexiest Woman of the 2010 Olympic Curling Tournament

The Winter Olympics get underway today in Vancouver, but one gold medal will be decided right here over the coming two weeks. Last year an extraordinary 183 votes were cast in our poll that crowned Jennifer Jones of Canada as the sexiest woman of the world curling championships. So who will be her (kind of) successor in the Olympic curling tournament? This time, it really is down to you, because after all the complaints about my rather subjective shortlist last year (interestingly many of the comments related to the exclusion of Nicole Joraanstad!) I’ve decided to include every single competitor on this occasion, including alternates. I’m relying on Wikipedia for accuracy – could be risky! Here is the full list of contenders –

Madeleine Dupont (Denmark)
Denise Dupont (Denmark)
Angelina Jensen (Denmark)
Camilla Jensen (Denmark)
Ane Hansen (Denmark)
Eve Muirhead (Great Britain)
Jackie Lockhart (Great Britain)
Kelly Wood (Great Britain)
Lorna Vevers (Great Britain)
Anne Laird (Great Britain)
Cheryl Bernard (Canada)
Susan O'Connor (Canada)
Carolyn Darbyshire (Canada)
Cori Bartel (Canada)
Kristie Moore (Canada)
Debbie McCormick (USA)
Allison Pottinger (USA)
Nicole Joraanstad (USA)
Natalie Nicholson (USA)
Tracy Sachtjen (USA)
Mirjam Ott (Switzerland)
Carmen Schäfer (Switzerland)
Carmen Küng (Switzerland)
Janine Greiner (Switzerland)
Irene Schori (Switzerland)
Moe Meguro (Japan)
Anna Ohmiya (Japan)
Mari Motohashi (Japan)
Kotomi Ishizaki (Japan)
Mayo Yamaura (Japan)
Andrea Schöpp (Germany)
Monika Wagner (Germany)
Melanie Robillard (Germany)
Stella Heiß (Germany)
Corinna Scholz (Germany)
Wang Bingyu (China)
Liu Yin (China)
Yue Qingshuang (China)
Zhou Yan (China)
Liu Jinli (China)
Ludmila Privivkova (Russia)
Anna Sidorova (Russia)
Nkeiruka Ezekh (Russia)
Ekaterina Galkina (Russia)
Margarita Fomina (Russia)
Anette Norberg (Sweden)
Eva Lund (Sweden)
Cathrine Lindahl (Sweden)
Anna le Moine (Sweden)
Kajsa Bergström (Sweden)


As ever, the women who have appeared nude in Ana Arce’s now-legendary curling calendars will be among the hot favourites for the crown. They include the aforementioned Nicole Joraanstad, Madeleine Dupont, Debbie McCormick and Camilla Jensen. Also in with a strong chance must be Carmen Schäfer and Eve Muirhead, who finished second and third respectively in last year’s poll.

To take account of the vastly expanded field this year, the rules have changed and you can vote for more than one favourite. So get voting!

Featured : Kuunkuiskaajat

Kuunkuiskaajat are a female folk music duo, who have been selected to represent Finland in the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest. The women concerned are Susan Aho and Johanna Virtanen, who also form part of the folk music group Värttinä. The name Kuunkuiskaajat translates into English as Moon Whispers, and the victory of their song Työlki ellää in the Finnish national selection is thought to owe a lot to the success of Estonia's superb 'ethnic' entry to Eurovision last year.

Kuunkuiskaajat's official website, containing photo galleries, can be found here.