New York Times article on fan obsession on Yu-Na Kim and some others

"Web Is Bringing Skaters’ Lives Uneasily Close to Fans’ Obsessions"

When Brian Orser received an e-mail message last fall from an admirer of his star figure skater, Kim Yu-na of South Korea, he wrote it off as another piece of fan mail.

The fan, a Canadian teenager, gave his name and attached his photograph, asking Orser for his help in setting up a rendezvous with Kim, the gold-medal favorite at the Vancouver Olympics. Orser, Kim’s coach, wrote back and said thanks, but no.

“I quite regularly get e-mails from people sending Yu-na their support or best wishes,” said Orser, a two-time Olympic medalist for Canada. “And this one seemed fine, until a few more e-mails came from the same e-mail address, but now the guy was using a different name each time. He was professing his undying love for her and that he would do anything to meet her.”

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That's plain creepy. I can understand if a fan is a admirer of a skater's talents but it gets downright weird when they're stalking a skater asking for dates and the like. She's lucky to have "father figure" Orser around to protect her.

NYT Article: Web Is Bringing Skaters’ Lives Uneasily Close to Fans’ Obsessions

“I quite regularly get e-mails from people sending Yu-na their support or best wishes,” said Orser, a two-time Olympic medalist for Canada. “And this one seemed fine, until a few more e-mails came from the same e-mail address, but now the guy was using a different name each time. He was professing his undying love for her and that he would do anything to meet her.”

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Buendorf said he could count on one hand the number of serious incidents during his 17 years with the U.S.O.C. One of those was in 1996, when he was asked to help protect Michelle Kwan, a five-time world champion, from a fan who had written death threats after she had not responded to his previous letters. That fan was taken into custody in Paris when Kwan was competing in the Grand Prix final there.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/sports/24skaters.html?ref=olympics

Scary, but not unexpected. There are a bunch of craaaaazy fans who've done worse to other people. *shudders*


(P.S. Sorry if this has been posted before!)

It seems Yuna needs bodyguards not only in her country but in other countiries, as she is so much loved & admired worldwide:yes: . I'm so relieved Yuna's dreamteam takes good care of her.

May God protect Yuna and all other atheletes all the time especially in Olympics !

That's very disturbing to hear. The Net is such a wonderful forum for bringing fans together, but its dark side is that it makes emotionally fragile people more likely to imagine that they somehow have a connection to the object of their obsession. We can't put this genie back into the bottle, unfortunately.

Sometimes this century isn't the easiest one to live in! But really, this instinct wasn't born with the Internet. Remember John Lennon--and that was in 1980. Unstable people have long been obsessed with one celebrity or another. Actually, it was easier in some ways to get to a star in the old days, before electronic surveillance and bodyguards. So things have improved in some ways because of the very technology that is giving us these worries.

Even ordinary fans can go a little too far. It's such a temptation to think that we mean as much to our skaters as they mean to us, and to crowd them a bit when we encounter them. I feel that there are rules of etiquette that all responsible fans, no matter how devoted, should observe. Years ago, I interviewed a very young skater for an article I wrote for my job. For several years, I would send her a card in anticipation of large events, or at Christmas. She sent me a card back from time to time. Even in those years, I was always careful to include signatures of the other co-workers who had been part of the article process--the photo researcher, the copyeditor, and so on. I kept my messages light and encouraging. I always sent regards to her family. I didn't want her or anyone around her to feel that anyone was paying undue attention to her. As her fame grew, I stopped sending cards. I'm sure she did just fine without them!

If I ever met some of my favorite skaters, I'm positive I'd burble like an idiot. Fortunately, a forum like this gets such behavior out of our systems without incurring lifelong embarrassment. ("I met Kurt Browning, and I said THAT?")

Even ordinary girls and women are often targeted by creepy people who have strange attachment to them. How do they protect themselves? I also would wonder if they feel safe about the people who approach them. People could betray after becoming close and sharing a lot, and cause huge damage to their public life.