Allison Stokke

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Allison Stokke Fowler
Stokke competing in 2008
Personal information
Birth nameAllison Stokke
Full nameAllison Rebecca Stokke Fowler
Born (1989-03-22) March 22, 1989 (age 35)[1]
Newport Beach, California, U.S.
Alma mater
Occupation(s)
Fitness model
Height5 ft 7 in (170 cm)
Weight128 lb (58 kg)
Spouse
(m. 2019)
Children1
Other interestsGolf
Sport
SportTrack and field
EventPole vault
College teamCalifornia Golden Bears
Updated on November 15, 2016.

Allison Rebecca Stokke Fowler (born March 22, 1989)

internet phenomenon
.

Stokke continued to pole vault, attending

2012 United States Olympic Trials
but failed to record a height. She continued vaulting at national level meetings up to 2017.

After college, she became a professional vaulter and sports model for Nike and Athleta, among others.

Early life

Born to Allan and Cindy Stokke in

pole vaulting while attending Newport Harbor High School and soon became one of the country's best young vaulters.[2] She won the age 15/16 United States title in 2004 with a championship record of 3.81 m (12 ft 6 in).[3]

She broke the American record for a high school freshman with a vault of 3.86 m (12 ft 7+34 in) in 2004 and then set a new high school sophomore record with 4.11 m (13 ft 5+34 in) in 2005. Her vaults were also the best ever achieved by an American aged fifteen and sixteen. Despite breaking her leg while in high school, she managed to win twice at the CIF California State Meet. In her senior year of high school, she ranked second in the national high school rankings with a new best of 4.14 m (13 ft 6+34 in).[1][2][4] She finished eighth at the national junior championships that year.[5]

Internet fame

Images of Stokke competing in New York in early 2007 were taken by a journalist for a Californian track and field website and placed online. In May, the image was then re-posted by

Internet phenomenon that they generated comment pieces nationally from The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, and internationally from British broadcasters at the BBC,[7] Australian daily The Sydney Morning Herald,[8] and the German weekly Der Spiegel, in addition to more than one million search engine results.[9][10][11] CBS also gave television coverage, using her story to highlight the dangers of the internet being used to publicly sexualize young people.[12]

Stokke initially tried to control the situation herself, but after being bombarded with emails and requests for photo shoots, she sought a media consultant to handle her new-found fame. She gave an interview on pole vaulting technique which was uploaded to YouTube, and it received over 100,000 views, but comments and discussion on the internet largely remained in relation to her looks. Her father, a lawyer, began to review online material to identify illegal behavior or stalkers. Reflecting on her situation, Stokke told The Washington Post "even if none of it is illegal, it just all feels really demeaning. I worked so hard for pole vaulting and all this other stuff, and it's almost like that doesn't matter. Nobody sees that. Nobody really sees me."[9] Der Spiegel noted that Stokke had become a "sex symbol against her will".[11] The attention affected her psychologically: she said that she found the leering "creepy and a little scary" and now took care to lock doors behind her.[13]

It was noted by the Los Angeles Times, among others, that Stokke did not seek or endorse such attention.

1999 FIFA Women's World Cup Final in her sports bra, where women's sporting moments were overshadowed by discussions of their appearance.[17]

Later career

After Stokke rose to fame, many more photographers began to attend the track and field competitions in which she took part, and her internet fame persisted over the following years.

Pac-10 Conference and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) regional meets that season.[2]

Stokke had more success in her second year at college, scaling 4.21 m (13 ft 9+12 in) in

NCAA Women's Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships, ranking 19th with her best effort of 3.90 m (12 ft 9+12 in). She focused on her studies in her third year at Berkeley and received conference all-academic honors at Pac-10 and MPSF level, as well as getting an academic honorable mention by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. In her last year of collegiate vaulting, she did not improve her best, finishing eighth at the Pac-10 Championships and missing qualification for the NCAA Championships by two places at the regionals.[2] However, in 2011 Stokke did place eighth at the NCAA Indoor Championships held at Texas A&M, clearing 4.10 m (13-05.25) on her first attempt, which secured All-American status.[19]

After finishing her degree, she continued to pole vault, although she did not rank highly among American athletes. A new lifetime best of 4.36 m (14 ft 3+12 in) came in the 2012 season as she aimed for the

National Pole Vault Summit) was an improvement but still ranked her outside of the top 30 American women that year.[1][21][22]

She became a

sportswear model, appearing in campaigns for Nike, Inc. and Athleta in 2015, and Uniqlo in 2016.[23][24][25] She also began to work with GoPro, delivering a series of videos of her vaulting heights with the camera attached to her pole to demonstrate the inner working of the sport and advertise the action camera equipment.[26][27] By 2016, these videos have received in excess of six million views on YouTube.[28]

Despite not placing highly on the national rankings, Stokke continued to compete regularly in national-level meetings. Her 2016 best was eighth at the Chula Vista OTC High Performance Meet with a height of 4.15 m and she improved the following year to 4.27 m for third at the 2017 Austin Longhorn Invitational.[1]

Personal life

Stokke started dating American professional golfer Rickie Fowler in 2017.[29] They became engaged in June 2018, and were married in October 2019.[30][31][32] The couple have a daughter born in November 2021.[33]

Seasonal bests

Year Height U.S. ranking
2017 4.27 m (14 ft 18 in)
2016 4.16 m (13 ft 7+34 in)
2015 4.15 m (13 ft 7+38 in)
2014 3.95 m (12 ft 11+12 in)
2013 4.20 m (13 ft 9+38 in)
2012 4.36 m (14 ft 3+58 in) 21
2011 4.26 m (13 ft 11+34 in) 27
2010 4.10 m (13 ft 5+38 in)
2009 4.21 m (13 ft 9+34 in) 24
2008 4.11 m (13 ft 5+34 in)
2007 4.14 m (13 ft 7 in) 33
2006 3.88 m (12 ft 8+34 in)
2005 4.11 m (13 ft 5+34 in) 35
2004 3.86 m (12 ft 8 in)

References

  1. ^
    IAAF
    . Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d "Allison Stokke". California Golden Bears. Archived from the original on November 17, 2011. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
  3. USATF
    . Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  4. ^ Eicelberger, Jason (May 25, 2007). Error doesn't faze Stokke Archived May 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. The Orange County Register. Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  5. USATF
    . Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  6. ^ Ufford, Matt (May 8, 2007). Pole Vaulting is Sexy, Barely Legal Archived March 17, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. Uproxx. Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  7. ^ How do you protect your privacy on the internet? Anu Anad Archived September 11, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. BBC (May 30, 2007). Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  8. Sydney Morning Herald
    (June 3, 2007). Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  9. ^ a b c Saslow, Eli (May 29, 2007). Teen Tests Internet's Lewd Track Record Archived April 14, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. The Washington Post. Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  10. ^ Nizza, Mike (May 29, 2007). Pole Vaulting to a New Crowd Archived January 5, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. The New York Times. Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  11. ^ a b Kremp, Matthias (June 5, 2006). Internet-Opfer: Sexsymbol wider Willen Archived August 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine (in German). Der Spiegel. Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  12. ^ Allison Stokke "Newfound Fame" on CBS2/KCAL9 Archived April 29, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. YouTube/CBS2. Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  13. ^ a b Pucin, Diane (June 2, 2007). Pole vaulting gets her lots of Internet looks, not all by sports fans Archived January 25, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  14. ^ Bowen, Richard (June 4, 2007). Allison Stokke - our mistake Archived December 10, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. BBC. Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  15. ^ Female athletes should be judged on skill, not looks Archived October 16, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. Daily Pilot (June 3, 2007). Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  16. ^ Hutchins, Brett & Rowe, David (September 5, 2013). Digital Media Sport: Technology, Power and Culture in the Network Society Archived March 8, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. Routledge. Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  17. ^ Laura Coletti (December 2012). Unwanted Attention: The Sexualization of Women in Sports Archived July 31, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. Live It Everyday. Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  18. ^ Cal Athletics. "Morgan and Stokke Score for Cal at NCAA West Regional - California". University of California Berkeley. Eugene, Oregon. Archived from the original on April 30, 2018. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
  19. ^ "TFRRS - Track & Field Results Reporting System". DirectAthletics. Archived from the original on December 21, 2016.
  20. USATF
    . Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  21. Track and Field News
    . Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  22. ^ 2015 Top Indoor Track & Field Marks - Women Archived March 26, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. USATF. Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  23. ^ Allison Stokke – Nike Women’s Photoshoot (Spring/Summer 2015) Archived April 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Got Celeb (April 14, 2015). Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  24. ^ Fit Minute With Model Athlete Allison Stokke Archived April 22, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Athleta (May 27, 2015). Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  25. ^ "Allison Stokke for Uniqlo Sports!". Sports + Lifestyle Unlimited. October 26, 2016. Archived from the original on April 30, 2018. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
  26. ^ Pole Vaulter Allison Stokke Joins GoPro To Talk Internet Fame & Fitness Archived April 11, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. D'Marge (April 2016). Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  27. ^ Augustine, Bernie (February 12, 2015). Allison Stokke takes viewers over the bar in wild pole-vaulting GoPro video Archived April 13, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. New York Daily News. Retrieved on April 10, 2016.
  28. ^ Waldman, Katy (August 4, 2016). "Allison Stokke Is the Most Popular Pole Vaulter in the World, and I Wish That Weren't So Depressing". Slate. Archived from the original on April 26, 2018. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  29. ^ Myers, Alex (June 15, 2017). "U.S. Open 2017: Rickie Fowler's girlfriend, Allison Stokke, is pretty famous herself". Golf Digest. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  30. ^ "Rickie Fowler engaged to 'best friend' Allison Stokke". ESPN. June 8, 2018. Archived from the original on July 30, 2018. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  31. ^ Dethier, Dylan (November 11, 2019). "Rickie Fowler gets bacterial infection on honeymoon". Golf. Archived from the original on November 12, 2019. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
  32. ^ Jason Lusk: Rickie Fowler and wife Allison expecting baby in November Archived May 20, 2022, at the Wayback Machine, golfweek.usatoday.com, June 21, 2021
  33. ^ "Rickie Fowler and wife Allison announce birth of daughter". November 26, 2021. Archived from the original on January 28, 2022. Retrieved January 13, 2022.

External links