'Caitlyn' Jenner to appear nude (almost) on the cover of Sports Illustrated

LOS ANGELES (Christian Examiner) – Bruce Jenner, also known as the transgender reality TV star "Caitlyn," will appear nude on the cover of Sports Illustrated, the celebrity gossip magazine Us Weekly has reported.

According to the magazine, Jenner will mark the 40th anniversary of his Olympic decathlon victory by being photographed wearing only his 1976 gold medal and an American flag.

Jenner was recognized in 1976 as the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year and he also donned the front of Wheaties cereal boxes. He never competed again.

The thrice-married father of six, now 66, is now known for undergoing a physical transformation in front of cameras on the reality show Keeping Up with the Kardashians. After he presented himself as a woman, he was given his own show, which has been plagued by poor ratings.

ESPN, which gave Jenner the Arthur Ashe Courage Award last year during the ESPY Awards, wrote in 2015 that Jenner's gold medal performance in 1976 – during the American bicentennial celebration – was especially important because he was "able to dethrone Soviet decathlete Mykola Avilov, who had won gold in 1972 during the height of the Cold War."

Jenner "came out" as a transgender during an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer in April 2015. He said he had felt like a woman since he was a child.

The public, however, knew much sooner than the Sawyer interview. Rumors began to circulate that Jenner had breast augmentation surgery in March 2015. He also appeared publicly with a neck bandage, covering the location of a surgery to reduce his Adam's apple, in February 2014.