When skier Lindsey Vonn was on the cover of last week's Sports Illustrated struke a pose in a ski racer's aerodynamic tuck position, she wore no helmet, which allowed her long blond hair to spill across the page.

This week, America's best Olympic medal hope at the Vancouver Games has ditched a lot more than just her helmet for SI's annual swimsuit issue, in which she poses in a bikini on a Canadian mountaintop.

Vonn is one of several Winter Olympic athletes depicted in the publication, which came out Tuesday. The list, snowboarder Clair Bidez, ski aerialist Lacy Schnoor, and snowboarder Hannah Teter. In a story posted at the magazine's Web site, Vonn said she accepted to pose because of the way Sports Illustrated had portrayed previous athletes, including Maria Sharapova.

"The pictures were always classy, they always looked really awesome," Vonn told SI's Tim Layden. "It made me feel a lot more comfortable about the whole thing, knowing they had shot other athletes. This was the time for me to show everyone what I actually look like, because I'm always wearing a helmet when I compete."

Vonn, 25, flew from Utah to Vancouver yesterday, bringing about 40 pairs of skis. She will race in all five Alpine skiing disciplines, and is a favorite for medals in three of them, including Sunday's super combined event.

According to Lindsay's husband, Thomas Vonn, who acts as his wife's manager on the ski circuit, only a very small circle was notified about the shoot, which took place last summer on a glacier near Whistler, where the Olympic Alpine skiing events will take place.
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"We're good at keeping secrets," he said.

The Vonns anticipate a little backlash to the bikini shots, given the fact that last week's cover image led some critics to argue that the magazine had sexualized a woman who should be recognized for her athletic prowess alone.

"We're excited and a little nervous," Thomas Vonn said. "Just the cover with her in the downhill suit it caused some controversy, which we're a bit surprised by. I just think people need to lighten up about it. It's a bathing suit. When you go to a beach you wear a bathing suit. Everybody does."

Vonn, who has won nine of 26 World Cup races this season, appears to be cashing in on the unique burst of national attention that her sport gets in the United States only every four years. Between races and training, she has scheduled a dizzying series of interviews, public appearances and photo shoots.

The images come three years after Vonn's teammate, 2006 Olympic giant slalom gold medalist Julia Mancuso, appeared in a bikini on posters distributed by her ski boot sponsor, Lange. It was an update on the traditional "Lange Girl" posters, which had hung above workbenches in ski shops around the world. Mancuso's appearance in them was the first time the company had used a professional athlete.
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At that time, Vonn said she wasn't yet ready for the kind of leap Mancuso had taken.

"I'm a pretty wholesome person, and I don't want to change that image, at least right now," the then-Lindsey Kildow said.

That was then, but this is 2010, and Vonn has made sure that all eyes will be on her as at the Winter Games begin with opening ceremonies on Friday.

Olympic star Lindsey Vonn trades racing uniform for bikini in Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue
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