Web woes for Stokke

Newport Harbor High pole vaulter Allison Stokke has been drawing attention ever since she won the state championship as a freshman with a clearance of 12 feet, 8 inches.

But lately, some of that attention has taken a lewd — and in one case downright fraudulent — turn.

In recent weeks, Stokke’s Internet popularity has grown. There’s a MySpace page for her fan club, an unofficial fan site (allisonstokke.com), and someone even started a Facebook account posing as Stokke. A crude video from a track meet, featuring an interview with Stokke, was posted on YouTube three weeks ago. Since then, it’s been viewed at least 143,714 times. A Google search for “Allison Stokke” garners 175,000 hits. The same search on Yahoo! shows 288,000 matching results.

But Stokke, who’s No. 2 in the state and will vault for UC Berkeley next year, isn’t an athlete in a sport that tops the television ratings. Hollywood doesn’t churn out a litany of movies about pole vaulting, so Stokke’s popularity is a mystery until you read the messages accompanying photos of her vaulting at track meets.

Comments about Stokke, 18, have ranged from “she’s hot” to obscene phrases that can’t be printed in a family newspaper.

One of the tamer posts on beyondhollywood.com reads: “Pole vaulting is one of those sports that you can go to college free for via scholarship, but hardly anyone knows it even exists, or that people actually treat it as, well you know, a sport. They’re going to get wise real soon when they meet Allison Stokke, the hottest pole vaulter since the dawn of the sport.”

Stokke declined to comment for this story.

It’s a situation that’s left Stokke’s parents, Cindy and Allan, angry and disgusted, and her track and field coach, Eric Tweit, scratching his head, because even though Stokke is an adult in the eyes of the law, she’s still in high school.

“The Internet and Dyestat [a popular website for California high school track and field] has taken the publicity you can have to a whole ‘nother realm that I’m really not used to,” Tweit said.

It’s been especially difficult for Stokke’s father, a prominent criminal defense attorney in Newport Beach, since he can’t pursue every random guy who posts inappropriate messages about his daughter. He’s worried about someone stalking her.

“I’m probably more sensitive to these things because of the cases I’ve seen over the years,” he said. “I’m concerned that something negative could develop from it.”

The family has not taken any legal action against offending sites to date, Allan Stokke said, and has no current plans to do so. He counseled Sarah Bench-Salorio, the Orange Unified School District teacher who was sentenced last year to six years in prison after pleading guilty to committing lewd acts with boys.

Stokke’s father said he did not know where most of the photos came from. Anyone can attend a track meet and take photographs, and if they have an Internet connection, they can share them with the world. Others have been copied from MySpace pages and dyestatcal.com.

Stokke’s vault numbers are far from average. Stokke set the national record for her age group her sophomore year, clearing 13-5 3/4 , but she broke her tibia at the CIF preliminaries. She spent her junior year making a comeback from the injury, and this year set a personal record of 13-7. Newport Harbor’s best male vaulter clears 13 feet, Tweit said.

Tweit said the Sailors could be competitive next season if they could get a girl who could clear 10 feet, let alone 13.

“We’ve been spoiled,” he said.

Stokke has the power to control how well she pole vaults.

She can even stop people from impersonating her on the Internet — Stokke wrote a stern letter to Facebook operators about the false account opened in her name, and it was shut down the next day.

But she can’t control every smutty thing someone says about her on the Internet, and neither can her parents.

The best they can do, Cindy Stokke said, is wait for the 15-minute frenzy that’s encompassed Stokke to find a new fixation.

“It has brought some interest for the sport. That’s the positive side,” Cindy Stokke said. “You have pole vaulting, and there’s not a lot of people that do it. It’s drumming up interest in the sport for women. That’s the silver lining. Maybe there’s girls that will say, ‘I’d never tried that, and maybe I’d be good at it.’ ”

Stokke has handled her newfound Google-able identity with maturity, according to Tweit and her parents. She’s remained focused on vaulting instead of worrying that a creepy guy will be photographing her as she’s backwards in the air.

Stokke will vault in the CIF Southern Section Masters Meet today at Cerritos College.

“Allison seems to have a great grasp and handle of it,” Tweit said. “She has her moments where it’s going to bother her, like anybody, but for the most part she’s been a great young lady.”

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or [email protected].