Sports Streakers - The naked truth

The recent Euro 2012 quarter-final between England and Italy ended in a goal-less draw, and went on to penalties. Eventually, it was Alessandro Diamanti’s turn to step up, and take one. At this time, while Joe Hart behaved like a man possessed by evil spirits, he had a little extra help from an English fan in the background – Tim O’Leary, a 35 year-old multi-millionaire from London, dropped his pants in a vain bid to distract Diamanti and give English hopes a boost. While his attempt did not quite work out, with Diamanti coolly slotting home the penalty to give Italy a 4-2 victory, Tim has now somewhat become a part of Euro history. So, what is it about these flashers, and their advanced brethren, the streakers, that manages to captivate the global audience?

Streaking, as most of us would know, refers to the act of running either partially or fully naked. It may be anywhere in the world, from the backyards of your quaint little suburbs, to the Swiss Alps, if one were brave (foolish?) enough to attempt it. But none receive as much attention and, well, exposure as the ones who provide a performance on the grand stages of sport.

Michael O’Brien, who can claim to be the pioneer of streaking at major sporting events, shocked the world when he invaded the Rugby match between England and France at Twickenham, in 1974. More importantly though, he gave the world one of its iconic images when he was caught up with by the cops, one of whom used his policeman’s hat to cover O’Brien’s genitals, as can be seen above.

This sparked off a trend of streaking at major events across various sports, all around the world. Tennis, Football, Cricket, Golf, Wrestling, and even Badminton make it to the list of sports which have had their own famous incidents of streaking. While one streaker, Brittney Skye (pictured below), had the website URL of an online casino painted on her back and managed to reach Jim Furyk, another one, Bruce McCauley, was hit with a cricket bat before being arrested for streaking. It is therefore obvious that results vary.

Some other famous incidents include the self proclaimed ‘World’s No. 1 Streaker’, Mark Roberts’ invasion onto the pitch at half-time during the Champions League final of 2002 between Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen. Roberts’ claims carry weight as he has also scored against Chelsea during a League Cup game at Anfield, in 2002. Here, he received the ball from none other than Gianfranco Zola before running past the Chelsea defence and placing the ball in the back of the net.

Where men go, women won’t be far behind. In the list of streakers, however, women not only catch up to but also greatly exceed the attention that their male counterparts receive. Take for example, Erica Roe, who played out her performance during a Rugby match between England and Australia, in 1982, at where else but Twickenham. In spite of streaking eight years later than O’Brien and being only topless (all the credit for half the effort!), she is widely considered as ‘The Twickenham streaker’ and Britain’s most famous one. While most people credit this fact to her impressive figure, it is hard to ignore the fact that she was one of the first women to do so.

Then, of course, there is Sheila Nichols. In 1989, this musician made herself famous by giving streaking a tweak. She not only ran out on to the pitch completely in the buff, but also did a couple of cartwheels for the audience to, well, savour. While it did not help her music career soar, it most certainly earned her a spot on this list. Then there was Yvonne Robb, who ran across a golf course in 1999 to plant a kiss on the now infamous golfer, Tiger Woods‘ cheek.

For the Cricket aficionados, it is hard to forget Naomi McDonald. While not many may know her by name, memories come running back when one is informed that she was the woman who streaked across one of the holiest of cricketing arenas, The Lord’s Stadium, during the test match between Pakistan and England in 2001.

One has to wonder what exactly goes on in the mind of a streaker? Is a streaker just another attention seeker who is trying to have his/her need for attention fulfilled? Or is streaking, in accordance with the Hippie philosophy, and the idea of Nirvana, truly the experience of freedom? Guess we’ll never know.. unless we step into a streaker’s shoes!

So, what do you think? Do streakers add value entertainment to a sport? Or should they be banned forever and punished to rot in hell?

Have your say!