London Calling
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A month ago, Allison Stokke was an ordinary sixth-former with a special talent: pole vaulting.
A two-time California state champion and national record-holder, she was serious about her chosen sport, which had earned her a university scholarship. But then she made the “mistake” of posting a three-minute interview about her technique on the internet video site YouTube.
Within days, pictures of her, innocently taken at a track-and-field event, were on the internet and being leered at by tens of thousands of men all over the world on websites that have nothing to do with sport.
The attention has become so great that Miss Stokke, 18, now locks the doors and avoids leaving her house alone. Her father, a lawyer, checks the internet every night for potential stalkers. She has even had to enlist the services of a media adviser to fend off hundreds of requests for photographs and interviews.
Her unwanted fame as an internet sex symbol can be traced to a fan who posted a photograph of the athlete stroking her brunette ponytail with her pole resting on her shoulder on an online message board about American football.
A two-time California state champion and national record-holder, she was serious about her chosen sport, which had earned her a university scholarship. But then she made the “mistake” of posting a three-minute interview about her technique on the internet video site YouTube.
Within days, pictures of her, innocently taken at a track-and-field event, were on the internet and being leered at by tens of thousands of men all over the world on websites that have nothing to do with sport.
The attention has become so great that Miss Stokke, 18, now locks the doors and avoids leaving her house alone. Her father, a lawyer, checks the internet every night for potential stalkers. She has even had to enlist the services of a media adviser to fend off hundreds of requests for photographs and interviews.
Her unwanted fame as an internet sex symbol can be traced to a fan who posted a photograph of the athlete stroking her brunette ponytail with her pole resting on her shoulder on an online message board about American football.
