Usain Bolt Declines ESPN Offer To Pose Nude

Despite all his on and off camera antics Multiply Olympic and World Record holder Usain Bolt may be very comfortable with the state of his career but he's certainly not comfortable posing nude.

According to reports earlier this year, the two time Olympic champion was among a group of athletes approached to pose nude for the 2012 ESPN The Magazine Body issue. The Jamaican sprint superstar is reported to have declined the request.

This year's edition of ESPN The Magazine Body issue raised many eyebrows as among the persons featured nude and semi-nude are United States athletes Carmelita Jeter and Walter Dix.

Senior deputy editor of the magazine, Neely Lohmann, said yesterday that Bolt was the only Jamaican athlete they had eyes on this year.

"We tried very hard to get Bolt but he was not comfortable with it. To my knowledge we focus really on American athletes but, of course, because Bolt is such a superstar so we tried to get him. We were trying from about January or February of this year. He (Bolt) is the only one I can recall right now who was approached; but it work both ways, we take suggestions and recommendations. We contact athletes and sometimes they contact us," Lohmann said.

On Thursday, Carole Beckford, publicist for Bolt, said that it is not the first time the Jamaican superstar has been approached by the magazine to pose nude.

"Every year they approach him but there is no need for Bolt to do a semi-nude feature. Bolt is one of the finest athletes and his marketing team felt that posing nude wouldn't enhance or grow his brand. That wouldn't add any value to his brand," Beckford said.