one thing about sports rpf that sets it apart is that these aren't about supernaturally beautiful people like actors and musicians and kpop idols are which is practically a criteria for any media facing job; made to be aesthetically beautiful and trained to be charismatic. athletes are often charisma vacuums because they start so young and are hyperfixated on their sport and have no personality beyond it. most of them are actually quite plain looking. there's some notable exceptions of genuinely stunning face cards but most are pretty average and the ones that are considered hot are actually hot for An Athlete. now I know some of you are disagreeing vehemently, blorbo from sportsball is the prettiest of them all, but really it's cause sports fans have so much exposure therapy to them, seeing the same faces all the time over a year and engaging in media about them, that they start finding beauty in the mundane where when you get to know someone you realise they're actually beautiful to you. now there is a notable scale where the more popular a sport/team/athlete is, the more they have entire hair and makeup departments for magazine shoots and interviews where they are styled or at least aware of what hairstyle or way to carry themselves looks good on them, and that adds to their overall attractiveness. scale down and you'll see someone calling a male cyclist with fucked up teeth who looks like a product of balkan incest a gorgeous girl. and that's how you get novel length and often better quality written rpf about dudes who look like in every other life were destined to the local town's convenience store cashier bored out of his mind at a gas stop in between your road trip you'd never spare a second thought of again. and I think that's beautiful <3

sports are insane. i just know a bunch of people now. nobody should know the names of this many people

the way two rome women's singles semifinalists also just played the women's doubles quarterfinals and sports fans online will try to have you believe there's no aspect of sports whatsoever that female athletes are just simply better at. men couldn't be top singles and doubles players simultaneously when serena and venus were doing it, and they still can't do it while gauff and paolini and andreeva and shnaider and krejčíková and ostapenko etc etc etc are still managing it seemingly with ease today. the way they do this not just at this tournament but week in and week out, year after year, and it's not constantly talked about as something remarkable and incredible that's specific to the capabilities of top women's players.