Data from: Attractiveness is positively related to World Cup performance in male, but not female, biathletes

Whole-organism performance capacity is thought to play a key role in
sexual selection, through its impacts on both intrasexual competition and
intersexual mate choice. Based on data from elite sports, several studies
have reported a positive association between facial attractiveness and
athletic performance in humans, leading to claims that facial correlates
of sporting prowess in men reveal heritable or non-heritable mate quality.
However, for most of the sports studied (soccer, ice hockey, American
football and cycling) it is not possible to separate individual
performance from team performance. Here, using photographs of athletes who
compete annually in a multi-event World Cup, we examine the relationship
between facial attractiveness and individual career-best performance
metrics in the biathlon, a multidisciplinary sport that combines target
shooting and cross-country skiing. Unlike all previous studies, which
considered only male athletes, we report relationships for both sportsmen
and sportswomen. As predicted by evolutionary arguments, we found that
male biathletes were judged more attractive if (unknown to the raters)
they had achieved a higher peak performance (World Cup points score) in
their career, whereas there was no significant relationship for female
biathletes. Our findings show that elite male athletes display visible,
attractive cues that reliably reflect their athletic performance.