Will try my best this Saturday afternoon.
Hope that's acceptable.
Allison Stokke - Soz like
- Thread starter Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian
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Hope that's acceptable.
chrismpw
Player Valuation: £70m
Radio 4 all day every day.
Morgan Schneiderlin has the exact same problem.
Why, do you think most would shrink und er the pressure?
Seathestars
Player Valuation: £60m
She could vault my pole anyday.
Why is she signing a dildo in the last photo ?Allison Stokke, remember her ?
well I just saw this ....
Young Allison Stokke was a brilliant athlete and was well on her way to competing in the Olympics. But when a harmless photo was snapped of her at an event, it quickly went viral and turned her into a sensation — but it certainly wasn’t for her athletics. The effects were horrible, turning her into an icon of desirability and essentially ruining her career in multiple ways before it could even begin….
A full understanding of what Allison Stokke went through requires some background. Allison was incredibly talented as far back as her freshman high school days in 2004, always managing to blow her fellow students out of the water with her natural abilities. She was on track to become the greatest young pole vaulter in the nation, but she never could have imagined what the future had in store for her.
At just 15, Allison was tackling records like a pro. She managed to break her own previous record with a jump of 12 feet 8 inches, but then broke that record again just the following year when she jumped 13 feet 5 ¾ inches! She was a rising star, which only made it all the more of a shame when her infant career came crashing down.
Allison’s parents were incredibly proud of their daughter’s accomplishments, but were also proud of the beautiful young woman she was turning into. They knew that she would accomplish so many great things in the years ahead of her, but they never would have dreamed that their daughter’s beauty would ultimately overshadow her athletic abilities in terrible ways.
As Allison entered her final year of high school, she imagined the amazing things she was destined for. She continued to set the bar high (literally) for her fellow athletes with her new record being 13 feet 6 ¾ inches. She was ranked the second-best high school pole vaulter in the country. Then — during one event — a photo was taken of her….
It was 2007, and young Allison was waiting in-between jumps at an event. A photographer was making their rounds capturing all the action as well as capturing the in-between moments of athletes as they focused intently. The photographer snapped a picture of Allison. It was done with complete innocence and was just one picture of one athlete at an event taken by someone just doing their job. What happened after that changed everything for her.
The picture of 17-year-old Allison Stokke was posted by a blog called With Leather (which had an audience comprised of mostly guys) and was featured in an article accompanied with a derogatory headline. The article emphasized her physical attributes instead of the sport or her athletic skills. Despite efforts by the photographer to have the image removed, the efforts were in vain. The photo of young Allison was already in the cosmos of the internet. Unfortunately, this was just the beginning of her troubles…
Allison was rapidly becoming an internet superstar, but for all the wrong reasons. It wasn’t long at all before someone formed a website devoted entirely to her, a place where anyone could go and ogle the young athlete. Social media groups were created for people who referred to Allison as their “internet crush.” Stokke was the focus of desire for many men (and even some women) — young and old. She and her family assumed her unwanted fame would blow over in time as most internet sensations do, but this was one sensation that wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
It wasn’t just the U.S. where Allison was exploding with popularity. Europe and the U.K. were talking about the “young athlete” on a daily basis. Even Australia was broadcasting about the American pole vaulter and practically raving about her on talk shows. Meanwhile, life was spiraling out of control for Allison and her family….
While the internet was salivating over the image of Allison, she and her family were having to deal with the unsolicited fame. Her Facebook page was blowing up with friend requests, the vast majority of which were from men who didn’t care about her as a person. Her mother would pick up the dry cleaning only to have the attendant look at her ticket and ask if she was related to “that pole vaulting girl.” The attendant was Korean, which was yet another country where her daughter was famous for being attractive.
Competing in competitions was becoming increasingly more difficult; not because of the athletic components, but because she consistently drew a large posse of spectators and “fans.” The gaggles of people were affecting her mentally as she had to focus knowing that eager eyes were staring at her — all of her. She found herself making sure that doors in her home were locked at all times lest some over-enthusiastic admirers try to pay her a visit.
This is precisely the kind of picture that evokes two very different responses from two very different types of people. Some would look at this and see a young woman preparing herself for a jump. Others still would see this and think that she’s striking some sort of sultry pose, displaying her physical anatomy. Unfortunately for an aspiring pro athlete, the world was right now seeing her for how “hot” she was instead of how adept she was at her sport. “Hubba, hubba” were such phrases that so many men’s blogs were running with, instead of sports blogs and sites running stories about the next great Olympic athlete.
In an effort to try and erase this new stigma that was being placed on her and dragging down her career potential, Allison decided to simply not acknowledge the attention at all. Instead, she recorded a video that focused on pole vaulting techniques and uploaded it to YouTube, hoping to turn the attention back towards her achievements. It ended up having a very opposite effect….
Her YouTube video ended up receiving well-over 100,000 views within just a few days, but people weren’t exactly viewing her abilities. The comment section wasn’t filled with things like “these are some great pointers,” but rather with comments talking about — once again — how attractive she was. Allison was growing more dismayed by the day, and she even contemplated quitting pole vaulting altogether….
With his daughter’s attention still in full effect across the internet, Allison’s dad Allan (who was a lawyer) decided it was time to step in and do something. He couldn’t stop the spreading, but he could at least monitor comments to see if anyone was saying anything illegal or if his daughter was in danger of being stalked.
Allison was becoming more and more upset by her fame. It was her lifelong dream to be known for her pole vaulting — known and skilled enough to one day compete in the Olympics — but it seemed as if that might never happen. She had become the center of about 1 million search results, many of which led to sites that raved about how gorgeous the pole vaulter was. Nonetheless, Allison was determined to continue with her life.
Rather than allowing that photo and the attention to sink her lower, Allison decided to just plow ahead as she had planned. Following high school graduation she attended college in her home state of California (on a scholarship, of course) and continued competing as well as running track. But then her life seemed to be getting back on track when she decided to try out for the Olympics…
Once she graduated from college, Allison decided to disregard her past completely and pursue the dream she had been eagerly seeking since high school. She trained day in and day out, hopeful that her efforts would qualify her for the upcoming 2012 London Olympics. Would this be the moment she had been waiting for her whole life?
Despite being one of the best vaulters in the nation, Allison simply couldn’t compete on that level. She was amongst 12 other athletes who couldn’t manage to clear the bar that was set just under 14 feet. For a while it seemed as if her career was over. But she’s found other ways to use her abilities that all point towards a valuable life lesson
After eight years of being known in a very unflattering way as “the hot pole vaulter,” Allison decided to finally just embrace her natural beauty and use it as a means of income in a classy way. As a famous athletic symbol, sports clothing brands were clamoring for her to model their products. Companies like Nike and Athleta were such companies that desperately wanted her, and it was then that Allison was finally able to come to peace with what had transpired following that photo….
Allison has managed to get over the life that has plagued her for so many years and realize that all that attention was actually unfairly placed on her. She recognizes that there were so many other vaulters better at the sport than she was at the time, and she feels badly that she received the attention that should have been on them. But that humility has come with a life of pain….
Allison has admitted that she’s turned down many chances to be on covers of sports and fashion magazines (even turning down the chance to go on The Today Show). She doesn’t regret turning them down since, after all, the fame was derived from her looks instead of her accomplishments. Is this stigma going to follow her around for the rest of her life?
Rather than becoming bitter from the experience, Allison’s parents have noticed that their daughter grew from the pain. “I think I saw her grow up faster,” said her mother. “She saw how the world can be, saw how some people can be really cruel, some people can be great. I think she realized, ‘I can’t be so concerned about what everyone else thinks; I have to pursue my career and my dream and my sport.’”
Going through something like this has taken its toll on Allison’s emotions and still continues to affect her. She described a time in college when students in her Sociology class had to write about a deeply emotional time in their life with the option to either turn it in or delete it. “And I didn’t share it. I deleted it,” she admitted. “I wish I still had that somewhere, because I think it would be very different now.”
After years of being emotionally drained from unwanted attention, Allison finally found someone who actually loved her for more than just her attractiveness. His name was Rickie Fowler, and he was 28 years old. Some people were concerned of the slight age difference, but they got over it quickly once they learned what Rickie was.
It’s typical to see two people from similar worlds be in a relationship, and it certainly applied here. Rickie was a professional golfer — in fact, you might have seen him play in the 2016 Olympic games in Rio! He’s played in the U.S. Open and is a rising golf star. However, Rickie’s own journey looking for love began just a few months prior with a viral picture of his own…
Soz for wrecking yer life like.
Is it for waving around outside Finch Farm on transfer deadline day ?
This is one for the vaults.
Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian
The Unobstructed View
Not all of these kits are appropriate for NCAA and USATF competitions
The binman chronicles
Player Valuation: £80m
She could take a firm grip of my pole anytime she wanted! Eh lads?
Oh crap this is a thread complaining about the objectification of women...Erm...yes terrible, I hate people who do that...awful, just awful, what a world we live in...
Oh crap this is a thread complaining about the objectification of women...Erm...yes terrible, I hate people who do that...awful, just awful, what a world we live in...
So, am I to take this as she'd have been better off if the people around her had just told her the truth? Yeah, that would've gone down well too...ain't no happiness nowhere.
Quick summary for those who don’t want to read all that:
1) she was a pole vaulter and didn’t want to be a model.
2) someone took a photo of her, which lead to issues of concentration and focus.
3) so she became a model.
4) she currently lives in Stoke-on-Trent and is married to Richard Hawkins
1) she was a pole vaulter and didn’t want to be a model.
2) someone took a photo of her, which lead to issues of concentration and focus.
3) so she became a model.
4) she currently lives in Stoke-on-Trent and is married to Richard Hawkins
I'm filing to change my name to Trent
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