That was back in 2005, in the hefty book that collected nude photos of rugby players taken by photographer François Rousseau for their annual wall calendar. The now famous Christophe and Steeve Guénot, 25 and 18 years old respectively at the time, featured only in the book, not in the calendar. Our friends over at French Rugby Players sent us the picture above.

Let’s take advantage of this wrestling occasion to introduce Beijing gold medalist Andrea Minguzzi. The 26-year-old police officer from Imola, Italy, defeated favorite Ara Abrahamian of Sweden in the semi-final and Hungary’s Zoltan Fodor in the 84kg greco-roman final. For the anecdote, the Swede was so incensed with the decision that he took his bronze medal from around his neck and dropped it in the middle of the wrestling mat, before storming off the ceremony. Andrea maintained composure — policemen are experts at that.

French Rugby Players
François Rousseau photography
Dieux du Stade on Amazon
Andrea Minguzzi pictures via: The Big Bad Blog