The 200 female guides who led each country’s athletes onto the National Stadium during last week’s opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games had to strip to qualify for the job.

Thousands of young women from colleges and dance academies in Beijing competed for the chance to appear before the huge worldwide audience.

During the selection process, the women were required to strip so teachers judging whether they were qualified could measure their body proportions, The Beijing News reported.

Twenty-year-old college student, Zhang Fan, who was among those competing for a guide position, told the paper that the girls were put in a room and teachers measured them with a ruler.

No specifics were given but the measurements were called "bone measurements" which typically include measuring the width of shoulders and waists, length of waists and height.

Zhang did not qualify but she was later selected to be one of the 400 cheerleaders who danced and cheered to rouse spectators.