Allison Stokke Documentary Pole Vault Story
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 In 2007, a 17-year-old track and field athlete was photographed, and the pictures took the
00:07 internet by storm.
00:10 People tipped her as the most beautiful athlete in the world, and made the whole world berserk.
00:17 Welcome to the Rich Rabbit, and today we'll be talking about the life journey of Alison
00:21 Stoke.
00:24 Born to Alan and Cindy Stoke in Newport Beach, California, Stoke grew up in a sporting family.
00:31 Her older brother, David, was a national-level youth gymnast.
00:37 After trying gymnastics, she took up pole vaulting while attending Newport Harbor High
00:42 School.
00:44 She soon became one of the country's best young vaulters.
00:49 She won the age 15 to 16 United States title in 2004, with a championship record of 3.81
00:57 meters.
00:58 Stoke broke the American record for a high school freshman with a vault of 3.86 meters
01:04 in 2004, and then set a new high school sophomore record with 4.11 meters in 2005.
01:13 Her vaults were also the best ever achieved by an American aged 15 and 16.
01:21 Despite breaking her leg while in high school, she managed to win twice at the CIF California
01:27 State Meet.
01:29 In her senior year of high school, she ranked second in the national high school rankings
01:34 with a new best of 4.14 meters.
01:38 She finished eighth at the national junior championships that year.
01:44 Images of Stoke competing in New York in early 2007 were taken by a journalist for a Californian
01:50 track and field website and placed online.
01:54 In May, the image was then reposted by With Leather, a sports blog with a large male fanbase,
02:01 remarking on the attractiveness of 17-year-old Stoke under the heading "Pole vaulting is
02:07 sexy barely legal."
02:10 The photographer threatened to sue the site owner if he did not remove the image, but
02:15 the article had already received significant attention and had been posted at dozens of
02:21 other websites.
02:23 A tribute website to Stoke soon emerged with several images of her competing in the pole
02:29 vault.
02:30 And after these images spread via social media, internet fan groups attracted thousands of
02:36 followers.
02:38 Within several weeks, her photos had become such an internet phenomenon that they generated
02:43 common pieces nationally from the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and the New York
02:48 Times.
02:51 And internationally from British broadcasters at the BBC and the German weekly Der Spiegel
02:57 in addition to more than one million search engine results.
03:01 CBS also gave television coverage using her story to highlight the dangers of the internet
03:07 being used to publicly sexualize young people.
03:11 Stoke initially tried to control the situation herself.
03:16 But after being bombarded with emails and requests for photo shoots, she sought a media
03:21 consultant to handle her newfound fame.
03:25 She gave an interview on pole vaulting technique which was uploaded to YouTube.
03:31 Soon enough, it received over 100,000 views.
03:35 But comments and discussion on the internet largely remained in relation to her looks.
03:42 Her father, a lawyer, began to review online material to identify illegal behavior or stalkers.
03:50 Reflecting on her situation, Stoke told the Washington Post, "Even if none of it is illegal,
03:57 it just all feels really demeaning.
03:59 I worked so hard for pole vaulting and all this other stuff, and it's almost like that
04:04 doesn't matter.
04:05 Nobody sees that.
04:07 Nobody really sees me."
04:09 It was noted by the Los Angeles Times, among others, that Stoke did not seek or endorse
04:15 such attention.
04:18 In their book, Technology, Power, and Culture in the Network Society, Brett Hutchins and
04:23 David Rowe linked Stoke's case with that of American soccer players Alex Morgan and
04:29 Hope Solo, female athletes who were fetishized and saw their public image framed sexually.
04:36 It was done in a way that the authors said de-emphasized their sporting achievements.
04:42 Regarding Stoke, they also observed that social media comments were frequently insulting in
04:48 nature and that the commenters blamed the sexualization process on the women themselves.
04:55 This drew parallels with Brandi Chastain's celebration of winning the 1999 FIFA Women's
05:01 World Cup Final in her sports bra, where women's sporting moments were overshadowed by discussions
05:07 of their appearance.
05:10 After she rose to fame, many more photographers began to attend the track and field competitions
05:15 in which she took part, and her internet fame persisted over the following years.
05:22 She continued to study and earned an athletic scholarship studying sociology at the University
05:27 of California, Berkeley.
05:31 In her first year of competition for the California Golden Bears track team, she broke the school
05:36 record for a freshman athlete, both indoors and outdoors, with a vault of 4.11 meters.
05:44 She competed at the Pac-10 Conference and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation regional
05:49 meets that season.
05:52 Stoke had more success in her second year at college, scaling 4.21 meters in Sacramento,
05:58 California, under the close observation of coach Scott Slover.
06:04 She finished eighth at the Pac-10 Championships, seventh at the MPSF Indoor Championships.
06:12 She debuted at the NCAA Women's Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships, ranking
06:18 19th with a best effort of 3.90 meters.
06:24 She focused on her studies in her third year at Berkeley and received conference All-Academic
06:29 Honors at Pac-10 and MPSF level, as well as getting an Academic Honorable Mention by the
06:36 U.S. Track and Field and Cross-Country Coaches Association.
06:42 In her last year of collegiate vaulting, she did not improve her best.
06:46 She finished eighth at the Pac-10 Championships and missed qualification for the NCAA Championships
06:53 by two places at the regionals.
06:56 However, in 2011, Stoke did place eighth at the NCAA Indoor Championships held at Texas
07:04 A&M, clearing 4.10 meters on her first attempt, which secured All-American status.
07:12 After finishing her degree, she continued to pole vault, although she did not rank highly
07:17 among American athletes.
07:21 A new lifetime best of 4.36 meters came in the 2012 season, as she aimed for the 2012
07:28 London Olympics.
07:29 However, she did not perform well at the 2012 United States Olympic Trials, as one of 12
07:36 competitors who failed to clear the opening height of 4.25 meters.
07:42 Her performances declined thereafter, with a best of 4.20 meters in 2013 and 3.95 meters
07:49 in 2014.
07:50 Her 2015 best of 4.15 meters was an improvement, but still ranked her outside of the top 30
07:59 American women that year.
08:01 She became a sportswear model, appearing in campaigns for Nike and Athleta in 2015 and
08:08 Uniqlo in 2016.
08:11 She also began to work with GoPro, delivering a series of videos of her vaulting heights,
08:17 with a camera attached to her pole to demonstrate the inner working of the sport and advertise
08:23 the action camera equipment.
08:26 By 2016, these videos have received in excess of 6 million views on YouTube.
08:33 Despite not placing highly on the national rankings, Stowe continued to compete regularly
08:39 in national-level meetings.
08:41 Her 2016 best was 8th at the Chula Vista ODC High Performance Meet with a height of 4.15
08:50 meters, and she improved the following year to 4.27 meters for 3rd at the 2017 Austin
08:57 Longhorn Invitational.
09:00 Now moving to her personal life, Stowe started dating American professional golfer Ricky
09:05 Fowler in 2017.
09:08 They became engaged in June 2018 and were married in October 2019.
09:15 And on that note, it's time for us to call it a day, but we do hope that you liked the
09:19 video and found it informative.
09:21 Subscribe to The Rich Rabbit and don't forget to click the bell icon.
09:26 Your valuable suggestions are very important to us, so do post them in the comment section.
09:31 And I'll see you in the next video.