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Some people have all the luck in the world. A new study discovers the reason behind why the best athletes in various sports also end up to be the one with the good looks too.

Today reports that it was Erik Postma from the University of Zurich in Switzerland who made a survey online that involves both men and women on discovering the guys who are most attractive also in terms of their athletic capabilities. Mr Postma is not just an evolutionary biologist but also an avid cyclist.

His survey included 816 people who were selected by a survey link e-mailed to them. He started off sending it to the ones included in his contact list and requesting the ones he knew to forward it to their own circles too. Some of those who made negative comments were the guys who found it awkward to comment on who they think is most attractive among men.

However, there were some who turned out cooperative and based their answers on the kind of men that they think the opposite sex will find extremely attractive. Besides, it is their way of knowing better too who their competitors are when eyeing the females they like.

The Process of Postma's Survey

Mr Postma selected 80 pictures from the participants of Tour de France and instructed the ones under survey to throw out the pictures if they recognise the athlete. In this way, they can only base their choices on who is attractive by the face and not of their credibility as popular winners already.

As result, the top 10 per cent of the cyclists' photos were discovered 25 per cent better looking in terms of race performance compared to the ten at the bottom of the survey results. The figures of the survey were stated by Mr Postma in the Biology Letters journal.

Through time, Mr Postma believes that most individuals have analysed the measure of attractiveness by numerous factors like shape of chin, length of fingers, facial hair and even size of penis.

"First, performance may be positively correlated with general health, vigor or strength, or certain personality characteristics (competitiveness), which in their turn may be associated with attractiveness. Alternatively, facial attractiveness may signal endurance performance in particular," Mr Postma concluded.

As for the number one athlete on the list of his survey results, it turned out to be Amael Moinard of France.