Allison Stokke, or why the internet is a bad, bad thing.

[EdgarDiazRocks]

So your teenage daughter is a pretty good pole vaulter.

 

A photog for a track & field website gets a great picture of her when she accepts a scholorship to Cal.

 

http://www.allisonstokkepictures.com/images/action_pictures/competition_pictures/24.jpg

 

Some cheesey sports/porn bloggers picks up the picture and all hell breaks loose.

 

Washington Post

 

Quote:

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Three weeks later, Stokke has decided that control is essentially beyond her grasp. Instead, she said, she has learned a distressing lesson in the unruly momentum of the Internet. A fan on a Cal football message board posted a picture of the attractive, athletic pole vaulter. A popular sports blogger in New York found the picture and posted it on his site. Dozens of other bloggers picked up the same image and spread it. Within days, hundreds of thousands of Internet users had searched for Stokke's picture and leered.

 

The wave of attention has steamrolled Stokke and her family in Newport Beach, Calif. She is recognized -- and stared at -- in coffee shops. She locks her doors and tries not to leave the house alone.

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Follow up article

 

Quote:

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Cal pole vault coach Scott Slovin said it might help that Stokke is coming to a big campus, because the school is equipped to deal with "every type of problem you could possibly imagine." Cal has had other high-profile athletes on campus, such as gold medal-winning swimmer Natalie Coughlin and basketball star Leon Powe.

 

But Stokke's situation is different. Her heightened profile doesn't have much to do with her on-field exploits, and Slovin acknowledges it might make Stokke's adjustment to college more difficult.

 

"The transition from high school to college is hard enough as it is when you're dealing with school, track, being away from home, being in the dorms living right next to somebody," Slovin said. "To have this on top of everything is the last thing she needs. Hopefully it turns into nothing and goes away. It could, but I doubt it. I wish people would just worry about their own lives."

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So my question is this, as guys, are we really this freakin' stupid?

 

Do we see boobs and then forget everything else in life?

 

And I found this story because guys on BTF were clamoring for more Allison Stokke coverage on SportsCenter.

 

EDIT: And hopefully, I'm starting a discussion about this and not simply feeding the frenzy.

[TheCrew07]

Pretty much yea we suck...

 

Erin Andrews, Allison Stokke, they'll be plenty more.

[RyDogg66]

I saw this on deadspin a while ago. Yeah she is an athlete, yeah she looks great, but cripes, she's 17, maybe 18...leave her alone...pervs.

[SeriesFinale]

Amanda Wenk is somewhere smiling bitterly

[Invader3K]

What is the big deal? It's not like she's semi-naked in that photo. I just don't get it.

[PKBadger]

Meh. She was 18, otherwise Deadspin and With Leather wouldn't have run the photo.

 

I guess I can sympathize a little bit since it was a press photo and not something that she put online herself (like a Facebook photo album), but at the same time.....it was a press photo. Once it's published, what can you do?

[RyDogg66]

anytime you combine two of man's favorite three things you are gonna get this kind of attention (the three things being sports, attractive women and the third being food).

[sheetswannabe]

Im 18, so I dont sound so creepy, but she is the next Baberham Lincoln. But for real, pervs need to lay off.

[bjkrautk]

anytime you combine two of man's favorite three things you are gonna get this kind of attention (the three things being sports, attractive women and the third being food).

 

Not to go all Freudian here, but the lengthy pole in the photograph probably isn't exactly helping things either.

[brewcrewman17]

I'm not so sure I completely understand... this girl is being harassed besides just getting recognized and stared at... I can understand the outrage if it goes beyond those two things, but I doubt that she wasn't getting stared at before this picture was run with by the press and other more shady outlets.

[endaround]

Don't blame the internet. Blame everything. Remember the FSU student who went to the game in a half shirt and cutoffs, got camera time and then was hunted down to do modeling work?

[ccbrew]

Not to mention her father, who I believe contributed to an article in the Washington Post..about why he doesn't want her to receive national attention.

[Schlitz001]

This is spun out of control and there is little or nothing that she can do about it.

 

Is it time for her to embrace the publicity and maybe serve as an endorser and ambasador of her sport? Maybe she doesn't want the attention, and it will likely eventually go away, but wouldn't it be in her best interest to go along with what is happening? She could probably make a lot of money through endorsements. Self exploitation. Is it so wrong?

[Barbs4339]

She looks like the younger sister of Adrianne Curry who married the Brady bunch dude.

[jaybird2001wi]

Why do I get the feeling that ESPN will jump on the bandwagon and tout her as the "Maria Sharapova of pole vaulting?"

Evidently, I did a google search on her just now and she is being exploited more than anyone believes. By the way, she looks a bit like Jennifer Esposito.

[And That]

Well, she is hot.

 

My feeling is that, if you're willing to put yourself in the position to be in the public light, to some degree you have to accept where the public light may take you. Of course if she's being harassed that's another matter entirely, but some public exposure that no one but her will remember in 2 years probably isn't the worst thing that will ever happen to her.

[jaybird2001wi]

Here is the flood of web sites dedicated to her already:

 

Allison Stokke search results

[brewcrewman17]

Quote:

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By the way, she looks a bit like Jennifer Esposito.

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To me she looks more like Vanessa Lengies of gymnastics movie Stick It! fame - which by the way, is suprisingly awesome.

[ajgodson]

This all happened a few months ago, but I've got a lot to say about it, so I'll drop a few here:

 

I don't blame With Leather a bit -- I've chatted with Matt about it and I really believe he handled it all appropriately. He went on TV and talked about it and explained his views. This post probably helps:

 

www.withleather.com/post.phtml?pk=2994

 

Allison is an athlete and while she may not relish the fame, the fact that she's attractive wasn't really a secret to most people and probably wouldn't stay a secret forever. The story was confined to a few thousand sports blog readers until her family did the story with the Washington Post. Only then did it become national news. Let that sink in.

 

Yes, men are pigs and the internet doesn't help. But is censorship really the answer? There are certainly some sickos out there, but being personally responsible is probably really the best answer.

 

Just my $.02 on the issue.

[sbrylski]

Well, maybe she should wear some clothes.

 

(But I'm totally fine with it if that's what she wants to wear!)

[RightFieldCoder]

Quote:

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So my question is this, as guys, are we really this freakin' stupid?

Do we see boobs and then forget everything else in life?

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Uggh, I'm sorry. What were you saying? My mind seemed to have wandered...

 

She's an adult that had a picture taken of her while she was out in public. Unless we get some Thought Police, there is nothing she can do. If she is getting harassed in real life, she needs some protection and those guys are jerks. If she's just getting glances from guys, well she could get that anyway since she's gorgeous.

[valpocrewsader]

YUM.

 

I mean, umm, how awful ... or something.

[mothershipconnection]

Unless she makes the olympics, this will likely fade really fast. The severity of the problem depends on what kind of attention she gets. If it's just "hot chick" attention, poor little thing, I feel bad that she'll be handed everything because she looks good. i guarantee that every girl on her team with a moustache or bad acne would trade places in a second.

[tyguy20204]

I have no sympathy for Allan Stokke after reading about some of his defense strategies (he's a well-known lawyer).

[dadofandrew]

There's a cost to fame. That seems to be what this entire thread confirms. However, if she can turn this into a single ad after her NCAA days are over, she'll probably be happy with the exchange.

 

And to be honest, she isn't any more attractive than the dozens of 18-21 year-olds who work at the phone bank in our office building.