Okay, so it’s not really a surprise for me to say that Sports Illustrated is myopic, given its paltry coverage of any sport other than football, baseball, basketball, hockey or golf.

But I scratched my head in wonder when I read their online piece, “The Hardest Working Athletes In Sports.” In this gallery you see ten athletes, including three each from football and baseball, two basketball players, and two golfers. Only one of these athletes is a woman (Annika Sorenstam, LPGA golfer).

Nary an appearance from athletes in sports that are on a much more world-heavy stage. Where’s Lance Armstrong? Where’s Levi Leipheimer? Where are Bode Miller and Daron Rahlves? Where is Julia Mancuso? Where are the Williams sisters? Where is Lindsay Davenport? Where are the US men’s and women’s soccer teams? Where is Misti May? These athletes bust their hump from year to year on a stage that features competitors from all over the world, involving tens of thousands of travel miles and schedules that are anything but easy. If you had to force Kobe Bryant to live away from his home continent for most of the season, living from game to game in tiny, alpine hotels with lumpy beds and no room service, my guess is he’d fold under the pressure.

I’m not saying that football, baseball and basketball players are lazy, or that golfers don’t belong. But I do think that SI is doing its readers a disservice by not showing off that, in the grand scheme of things, there are other athletes who need to be in better shape for a longer period of time than those in the made-for-TV sports.

But I guess that SI assumes that its readership is dumb, lazy, and likes their sports sanitized for commercial TV. That’s gotta be it….