With just three weeks before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the Chinese edition of Sports Illustrated chose not to highlight tennis champ Zheng Jie or basketball sensation Yao Ming, but this pretty white lady who's been in more Canon television commercials than tennis courts lately.

Wei shen me?

Anna Kournikova is pretty, and so is SI China. But the only thing harder than finding a media kiosk in Beijing that sells the magazine is finding Kournikova on a tennis court. With the Olympics countdown clocks all over the capital now inside of 20 days, is it really time for a "Where are they now?" story? The cover line reads: "Searching for Kournikova." Even in a country of 1.3 billion people, it's pretty safe to say that no one is.

Our simple theory: The intended cover boy or girl pulled out at the last minute. Someone at SI China suggested using its US sister magazine's Rafael Nadal shots for the cover. But the boss pointed out that SI China's runaway best-selling issue is the swimsuit issue, so the art department called the US office asking for the next best thing. Thus did an irrelevant athlete appear on newsstands amidst China's countdown to its most exciting sports moment.

[China Sports Today]