Have great looks, will go the distance!

Contrary to the popular belief that successful athletes distinguish themselves through hard work, grit and most importantly raw talent, a new research claimed that an attractive face gives competitive advantage to sportsmen.

Contrary to the popular belief that successful athletes distinguish themselves through hard work, grit and most importantly raw talent, a new research claimed that an attractive face gives competitive advantage to sportsmen.

HT Image

According to a survey of over a thousand Twitter followers, the better a sportsman looks the more is his chances of winning a game, the New Scientist journal reported.

A team led by Justin Park at the University of Bristol, UK, had asked women to rate the attractiveness of National Football League (NFL) quarterbacks — all were elite players, but the best were rated as more desirable.

“Athletic prowess may be a sexually selected trait that

signals genetic quality,” Park said, adding “so the same genetic factors that contribute to a handsome mug may also offer a slight competitive advantage to professional athletes”. This is not to say that the best athletes are always the best looking. Park said: “When we compared the players’ looks to another measure of performance — the percentage of matches each pro won in 2008 — the correlation proved statistically significant, though still modest.”

“The study may have been conducted informally, but you’ve made a new discovery,” Park said. “Who would have thought that better-looking tennis players are more likely to win matches?”