woman nicknamed \u201cdevil baby\u201d<\/a> pleaded guilty to stalking then-Chelsea players Mason Mount and Billy Gilmour.<\/p>\nStalking has become part of the sports landscape: Matches are being interrupted, players are acknowledging that fixated strangers are impacting their mental health and performance, leagues and colleges are directing more money and resources toward security. On social media, athletes share stories, ask for advice, connect and commiserate. Consider what Rice said in March about her ordeal:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that a lot of us players have to go through that. \u2026 I think just knowing that as the sport continues to have a bigger platform and is broadcasted on a higher level, those instances are gonna increase.\u201d<\/p>\n
That Thiaw\u2019s fixation with Rice began after he saw her on social media is consistent with many stalking incidents. As athletes chronicle their careers and lives, often to promote their sport, they increase the odds that someone will become dangerously obsessed with them.<\/p>\n
A string of strange posts and comments on Facebook and TikTok was one of the first indicators that 40-year-old Robert Cole Parmalee, a resident of Grants Pass, Ore., had become fixated on Bueckers, then a University of Connecticut senior.<\/p>\n
On social media, Parmalee professed his love for Bueckers and his desire to marry her. One TikTok caption read: \u201cAnd if I cannot live with a woman of my choosing, (Paige), then I will choose to die, and I will choose to take all of you that pose me, oppose us, to hell, and return, king\u2026I love you (Paige), if you allow them to touch you, you allow them to die.\u201d Online fan accounts began tagging Bueckers in an attempt to warn her.<\/p>\n
In August 2024, Parmalee was arrested by Connecticut State Police while walking alongside a highway on an unrelated warrant out of Oregon. Prior to his arrest, he posted on social media that he was coming to propose to Bueckers.<\/p>\n
Bueckers told UConn police she felt \u201cthe need to look over her shoulder more often in large groups\u201d and \u201cworried about the safety of herself as well as her family members and basketball teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n
In September, Parmalee was rearrested and charged with breach of peace, electronic stalking, and harassment. In December, he pleaded guilty to a stalking charge and received a one-year suspended sentence and three years of probation, during which time he is barred from Connecticut and any arenas, hotels and practice facilities where the UConn women\u2019s basketball team is present. The WNBA also barred him from all arenas and practice facilities.<\/p>\n
A protective order is in place until Jan. 4, 2064.<\/p>\n
This January, a 55-year-old Texas man, Michael Lewis, was arrested and charged with stalking Clark, the Indiana Fever star. Lewis sent a series of sexually violent messages and threats to Clark via social media before he drove 13 hours to Indianapolis with the \u201cintent to be in close proximity\u201d to her.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeen driving around your house 3x a day,\u201d one message read, according to court documents. \u201cBut don\u2019t call the law just yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m getting tickets. I\u2019m sitting behind the bench,\u201d read another. An implicit or explicit threat was also made \u201cwith the intent to place Caitlin Clark in reasonable fear of sexual battery,\u201d prosecutors wrote in the Marion County Superior Court filing.<\/p>\n
Clark told police she feared for her safety and had even begun to alter her appearance in public.<\/p>\n
In late July, Lewis was sentenced to 2 \u00bd years in prison after pleading guilty to stalking and harassing Clark. There is currently a no-contact order in place, and Lewis is banned from Gainbridge Fieldhouse, where the Fever play home games, and Hinkle Fieldhouse, the team\u2019s former arena.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter how prominent a figure you are, this case shows that online harassment can quickly escalate to actual threats of physical violence,\u201d Marion County prosecutor Ryan Mears said in a statement. \u201cIt takes a lot of courage for women to come forward in these cases, which is why many don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s basketball has had to quickly adapt as the sport\u2019s surging popularity has increased the risk to its players. The University of Iowa, Clark\u2019s alma mater, beefed up security for women\u2019s basketball home games from 2022 to 2024 as Clark rose to become the most popular women\u2019s player in history. During Clark\u2019s sophomore season, security expenditures for women\u2019s basketball home games reached $153,780. During Clark\u2019s final season, it was $466,169, according to public records.<\/p>\n
In 2023, the NCAA hired an outside firm to track social media interactions directed at coaches, referees and players.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the vendor who\u2019s running this program sees really nasty stuff coming at somebody, we notify the platforms,\u201d NCAA president Charlie Baker said in March. \u201cAnd the platforms, generally speaking, will block those people and take them down.\u201d In some cases, the NCAA has forwarded communications to law enforcement for follow-up.<\/p>\n
But there are more than 90,000 female college athletes just at the Division I level, spread across 365 schools. It is impossible to institute all-encompassing protective measures across such a vast landscape.<\/p>\n
How, for example, could the University of Colorado have prevented a then 43-year-old man from downloading images of some of its female cross-country runners and combining them with pornographic images, and then messaging those runners about how he was stalking them and planning to rape, torture and kill them? (That ordeal, which occurred in 2015-16, led to the man being sentenced to more than 14 years in federal prison.)<\/p>\n
After swarms of young men with posters and a full-sized cutout of Livvy Dunne disrupted LSU\u2019s gymnastics season opener in 2023 at the University of Utah, LSU amped up its security at away meets, which included creating a perimeter when the team boarded its bus. But Dunne is also among several female athletes who recently spoke about men finding out their flight information and then aggressively accosting them at various airports.<\/p>\n
You can\u2019t create a perimeter around someone\u2019s entire life.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s tennis and golf are perhaps the professional sports that have grappled with this issue the longest. While the tennis cases \u2014 involving Seles, Serena Williams, Anna Kournikova and others \u2014 have been well chronicled, golf\u2019s struggles with fixated individuals have been less spotlighted.<\/p>\n
Among the incidents reported: A former caddie for Michelle McGann sent over 30 packages professing his love for her. Once, at Michelle Wie\u2019s sunrise practice session, security spotted a man in a powder blue suit and floppy hat who had taken a bus from Iowa to Portland to propose to the golfer. And, a man tried to break into Morgan Pressel\u2019s gated community in Boca Raton, Fla., after claiming Jack Nicklaus and the CIA had instructed him to speak with her.<\/p>\n
Historically, the LPGA has assigned plainclothes police officers to specific players, but more recently the organization has used specialized security firms, often run by former U.S. Secret Service agents.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not uncommon for photos of individuals of interest to be posted at all tournament entry gates and security officials look for red flags: aggression in the autograph area, requests for an athlete\u2019s used clothing and attempts to take up-skirt photos, according to Scott Stewart, who works for TorchStone Global, an international risk mitigation firm used by the LPGA and other sports leagues.<\/p>\n
\u201cGolf is different than the other sports because spectators have access to players before, during and after we play,\u201d said Rick Pano, father and caddie of LPGA player Alexa Pano. \u201cThe NFL, Major League Baseball, you have distance, but in golf you don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
About five years ago, a red button was added to the LPGA Player Portal, a digital hub for all tournament details. One press of the button, and security is immediately deployed to the player\u2019s location.<\/p>\n
After Seles, the WTA posted security guards on courts at events. Security tightened even further in 2008 when the league announced players, parents, agents, coaches and other entourage members must agree to criminal background checks for full tournament access. And in 2024, the WTA set up a monitoring service for social media threats. Just this March, \u015awi\u0105tek was given extra security protection during the Miami Open after being verbally attacked at practice by a man who had harassed her on social media.<\/p>\n
The WNBA has also amplified and modernized its security protocols. Not long after the Clark and Bueckers incidents, the league assembled an offseason task force, which includes monitoring of social media to detect threats and added security measures at the league and team levels. Other leagues and organizations have taken similar steps.<\/p>\n
Even though all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the federal government have had anti-stalking laws in place since the mid-1990s, most statutes designed to address and prohibit stalking are toothless, and prosecution of the crime falls almost entirely on the victim.<\/p>\n
\u201cRestraining and protective orders become sort of your first line of defense,\u201d said Carlos Cuevas, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Northeastern University. \u201cBut one of the difficulties is that the burden of protection is so much on the victim. They have to report it, they have to get the restraining order, it\u2019s temporary. They have to go in there and go back and make it permanent. And then in most states or most places, that needs to get renewed every year, so there\u2019s a lot of, sort of, labor, if you will, that the victim has to engage in to protect themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Legal documents such as protective orders are often only a paper shield. Forty to 50 percent of protective orders are violated, according to the Stalking Prevention, Awareness, and Resource Center. Some studies even found there was an increase in physical or psychological abuse after an order was granted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe criminal penalties for stalking are oftentimes not that severe,\u201d said Dr. J. Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist who consults on public figure stalking cases. \u201cThen they\u2019re back in action, and we know that \u2026 repetition, reoffense is very high.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Rice, the temporary restraining order granted by the court in January had little effect. The summer of 2024 was filled with messages from Thiaw, in direct violation of the order.<\/p>\n
\u201cTHEY ARE TRYING TO TELL ME THAT I DO NOT HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO LOVE KIRA KIKI CARROLL RICE,\u201d reads a portion of an email sent to Rice\u2019s email address in June.<\/p>\n
\u201cTHE DAY I GOT ARRESTED I SAID THIS STORY WILL BE TOLD AT THE DINING TABLE AT OUR WEDDING, AND TO OUR CHILDREN,\u201d reads one from July.<\/p>\n
On Oct. 17, 2024, the court issued a more permanent, five-year restraining order against Thiaw. At the trial, Thiaw testified, \u201cI would like to be your husband one day. And I\u2019m not some love bird. I have already thought of strategies on how to be your dedicated husband.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the weeks since then, Thiaw, who is now 22, has filed a series of motion papers in an effort to terminate the restraining order, citing \u201cno credible evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an email, Thiaw wrote to The Athletic: \u201cMy entire ordeal began with a rightful ticket \u2014 one I obtained legally. That act was distorted by false statements and misrepresentations in a police report designed to criminalize me without cause.\u201d<\/p>\n
In June, he successfully completed a mental health diversion program, after which the criminal case against him was dismissed. (The civil restraining order case is independent from the criminal matter.)<\/p>\n
This month, Rice had to submit an additional plea to the court for the continuance of the restraining order against Thiaw.<\/p>\n
In opposition to Thiaw\u2019s request to remove the restraining order, Rice submitted the following declaration: \u201cLatyr\u2019s relentless stalking and harassment caused me significant emotional distress. \u2026 I have just started to be able to live my life again without the constant worry of Latyr disturbing my peace. \u2026 I am forced to relive the stress I experienced over the last two years which has triggered a fear that my peace will be greatly disturbed knowing that he could contact me at any time or appear wherever I may be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just last week, the court denied Thiaw\u2019s request, and the restraining order will remain in place until October 2029.<\/p>\n
Athletes who have been stalked talk about the lasting impact it has on their lives. (Many choose not to speak about it at all due to fear of copycats, or a refusal to give their stalkers more power or notoriety.)<\/p>\n
After her stabbing, Seles was out of tennis for nearly 28 months. She fell into a deep depression and developed an eating disorder. \u201cAnd yes, the physical scars healed in a few months. But the emotional damage cut much deeper and I was plunged into a fog of darkness and depression that I couldn\u2019t see my way out of,\u201d Seles wrote of the attack in her 2009 autobiography.<\/p>\n
Eleven years after a man tried to abduct her with duct tape, two loaded guns and a wooden club, Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson told ABC in 2019 that the experience still haunts her.<\/p>\n
After her three-year ordeal with a stalker<\/a>, Olympic runner Emily Infeld remains careful with what she posts on social media, no longer receives mail at her condo, and still keeps a metal bar by the front door.<\/p>\nThe fear among women\u2019s sports activists is that any behavioral changes female athletes make could stymie the momentum women\u2019s sports has built in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a long history of when women\u2019s sport becomes popular, visible, lucrative, that we see a plethora of ways in which women\u2019s value, popularity, and visibility is undermined, marginalized, silenced and erased,\u201d said Nicole LaVoi, director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. \u201cI think harassment and stalking is one exemplar of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 The Athletic\u2019s Gabby Herzig contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb \/ The Athletic; photos: Sarah Stier \/ Getty Images, iStock)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Valentine\u2019s Day 2023, Latyr Thiaw, a 19-year-old maintenance worker living in Washington, D.C., saw a picture of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":146369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[3909,392,2470,1430,234,3777,62,222,1464,8800,67,132,68,232,3522],"class_list":{"0":"post-146368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-connecticut-huskies","9":"tag-culture","10":"tag-dallas-wings","11":"tag-golf","12":"tag-indiana-fever","13":"tag-olympics","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-sports-business","16":"tag-tennis","17":"tag-ucla-bruins","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-wnba","22":"tag-womens-college-basketball"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115029836007777855","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}