Adult permitted to be hugged by most of these sportsmen? (8)
I believe the answer is:
athletes
'sportsmen?' is the definition.
(sportsman is a kind of athlete)
'adult permitted to be hugged by most of these' is the wordplay.
'adult' becomes 'a' (abbreviation).
'permitted' becomes 'let' (to let something happen is to permit it).
'to be hugged by' is an insertion indicator (I've seen this in other clues).
'most of' means to remove the last letter.
'these' with its last letter taken away is 'thes'.
'let' put into 'thes' is 'thletes'.
'a'+'thletes'='ATHLETES'
(Other definitions for athletes that I've seen before include "Sportsmen and women" , "sportspeople?" , "Eels that are good at sports" , "They train to compete in sports" , "Al, the set is up for the physically skilled" .)