WWW- Praise Zeus: Some athletes are committed to keeping Olympic traditions alive. Just as contestants in the ancient Greek games competed in the nude, a few brave women have seen fit to pose for Playboy. U.S. swimmer Haley Cope tells the mag that she doesn’t sweat it if her supertight suit rips at a meet.

“You flash the timers and go,” says Cope.

She also doesn’t mind pals in the locker room calling her “the Olympic nudist.” “I don’t walk through the door and strip, but I might paint my nails naked,” she says. “People aren’t comfortable with themselves. I am.

“I’m a freak. I vote Republican, I worship Martha Stewart, and I don’t mind being naked.”

Also posing: pole-vaulter Mary Sauer (who makes some wink-wink remarks about how she examines a pole) and U.S. high-jumper Amy Acuff (who sometimes competes in fur shorts).

Acuff suggests why planners stock plenty of condoms in the Olympic Village: “A number of athletes in the Village – people who know they don’t have a chance – are there to have a party,” she says.

And while we’re on the subject: What venerable, super-macho gold-medalist now likes to relax in women’s clothing?

We can’t say, but he’s a perfect 10.