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.