Matt Harvey looks Amazin’ as he shows off the form that’s made him the ace of the Mets staff in ESPN The Magazine’s fifth annual body issue.
And Harvey, though barely 24, is getting used to national exposure. The Mets right-hander is in the conversation to start this month’s All-Star Game at Citi Field. ESPN’s tribute to muscle tone hits newsstands Friday, with a cross-section of hard-abbed athletes disrobing for some breathtaking photography, seen here for the first time.
“It was kind of nerve-racking at first,” Harvey told The News last week. “I’ve never been fully nude in front of random people like that before — especially with a camera around. But now that it is all done, it was a fun experience.”
Harvey is joined by an all-star lineup of 20 athletes, including San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick, beach volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh and 77-year-old golfer Gary Player.
NHRA funny car racer Courtney Force, 25, is one of eight athletes selected for cover photos — the issue features eight separate front pages.
Force, sporting nothing more than a discreetly-placed red gasoline can, appears in a shot sure to rev the engines of readers who’ve only seen her inside a bulky firesuits.
“I did it to try to shine a light on our sport and show them that we are athletes,” Force told The News of the unprecedented (ahem) exposure for funny car racing. “We’re driving 10,000 horsepower cars and although I am a female, I have to work extra hard to drive one of these cars to keep up with the men.”
One man wasn’t worried about shocking was her father. John Force, himself a legend in drag racing, posed for the Body Issue two years ago.
Miesha Tate, the 26-year-old No. 1 bantamweight contender on the women’s Ultimate Fighting Championship circuit, also wanted to use the opportunity to sweep away some stereotypes.
“One of the of the biggest common misperceptions about women’s mixed martial arts is that we’re not feminine,” she says. “So for me it’s important to show that women in this sport are comfortable about their bodies, that we’re pretty and carry ourselves as women — and we can also turn it up a notch in the cage.”
That being said, Tate admitted to being more comfortable getting kicked in the ribs than disrobing for her photo shoot on a Malibu beach.
“It was nerve-racking because even though it was a private beach, there’s still big houses all around and we had a couple of people trying to walk by the shoot,” says Tate. “They kept turning around and walking in the background and our crew kept having to hold up blinders so they wouldn’t see me.
“That took any modesty right away,” she adds, laughing. “I had to go with the flow.”
Readers can see the magazine’s photos, interviews and videos of the shoots starting Tuesday at 9 a.m. at www.espn.com/bodyissue.
