Carmelita Jeter Body Issue: ESPN Photo Shoot Comes at Perfect Time for Olympian

Carmelita Jeter picked the perfect time to get naked on camera.

As part of ESPN The Magazine's annual Body Issue, the world's fastest woman stripped down to her birthday suit and showed off her impressive physique. As always, the photo shoot was tastefully done, and while all the participants will benefit from the good publicity, the timeliness of the issue is most helpful for Jeter.

The Body Issue will hit newsstands on Friday, July 13, exactly two weeks before the opening ceremony at the 2012 London Olympics. One week after that, Jeter will look to repeat her performance from the 2011 World Championships, when she won with a blistering time of 10.64 seconds.

That is, the second fastest time ever run by a woman.

Although Jeter was already going to have some buzz surrounding her, this high profile photo shoot will significantly boost the interest in her performance.

At this moment, most Americans—and even most casual sports fans—have no idea who Carmelita Jeter is. The first guess would probably be Derek's wife. The second would probably be his sister. One of the last would be "the fastest woman in the world."

Despite being perhaps the greatest female athlete on the planet, Jeter is relatively anonymous. As I'm writing this, she has just 7,239 Twitter followers. That's about 555,000 less than Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world. 

However, you can expect that disparity to shrink in the coming days and weeks. With her bubbly personality, incredible athleticism and stunning good looks, Jeter has all the makings of an international icon.

She just needed something to help bring her into the global spotlight. I think it's safe to say that the Body Issue will do just that.