German sportswomen pose nude for Playboy

BERLIN (Reuters Life!) - Four German Olympic sportswomen will appear as September cover girls for the country's edition of Playboy, the magazine's publishers said on Wednesday.

Sailor Petra Niemann, hockey striker Katharina Scholz, canoeist Nicole Reinhardt and judo fighter Romy Tarangul will add their names to the growing list of athletes getting their kit off for cash or a cause.

American Olympic swimming champion Amanda Beard posed naked in Playboy last year, and in Beijing stripped for a campaign to end the fur trade, while British athletes have been photographed naked to advertise a sports drink.

Germany's Reinhardt, who is pictured with her legs around a paddle, reassured Playboy that she had not developed unattractively large arm muscles during training.

"I don't need thick arms," the 22-year-old said. "In canoeing it's about technique, thank God."

Tarangul told the magazine men now appreciated she could be good at judo without being an "un-feminine muscular Amazon".

Germany's Playboy will have four different covers for the first time when it is published on Thursday, each dedicated to one of the sportswomen.

(Reporting by David Milliken, editing by Paul Casciato)