On April 30, 1993, during a tennis match in Hamburg, Germany, one of the sport's all-time greats, Monica Seles, was playing Magdalena Maleeva in the Citizens Cup when a fan of her fierce rival, Steffi Graf, jumped out of the stands and attacked Seles during a break between sets.
The fan, a German man named Günter Parche, was obsessed with Graf, who had recently lost her number one ranking in the world to Seles. While Seles's injuries healed in a couple of weeks, she was out of tennis for two years, dealing with the psychological trauma.
In her 2009 autobiography, Seles wrote that "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't see my way out of."
In the intervening decades, the problem of stalking athletes at every level, in every sport, has exploded into a security nightmare.
"I do know with certainty that new media have increased dramatically the number of threats and stalking incidents" of athletes and celebrities, particularly women, Dr. Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist, told The Athletic. Dr. Dietz is one of the first (and only) people to study the stalking of public figures.
There are no scientific studies about the stalking of athletes, and no information clearinghouse to keep track of the number of athletes under threat. Many cases go unreported, and even when an athlete informs police, what can be done?
Female tennis players Iga Świątek, Yulia Putintseva and Emma Raducanu dealt with stalking incidents this year. Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers and other women’s basketball players were subjected to stalking that led them to fear for their safety. Gymnasts Simone Biles and Livvy Dunne have been targeted, as has track athlete Gabby Thomas; American hurdler and bobsledder Lolo Jones had someone break into her training facility and attempt to do the same at her home, one of three men she said have stalked her in recent years.
Among the male victims are former Los Angeles Rams star Aaron Donald; a woman has harassed and stalked him and his family for years. Another former NFL player, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, was stalked by a woman with a “bizarre and extreme obsession,” according to a restraining order application. She changed her last name to his and used it to access the gated community where his family lives. A woman nicknamed “devil baby” pleaded guilty to stalking then-Chelsea players Mason Mount and Billy Gilmour.
"Stalking 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," reports The Athletic.
When WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark was playing ball at the University of Iowa, the school spent almost $154,000 on security during her sophomore year. In her final year, that number had grown to $466,000.
The NCAA hired an outside firm to track social media interactions with players, coaches, and referees.
"If the vendor who's running this program sees really nasty stuff coming at somebody, we notify the platforms," NCAA president Charlie Baker said in March. "And the platforms, generally speaking, will block those people and take them down." The Athletic reports that, "In some cases, the NCAA has forwarded communications to law enforcement for follow-up."
It's only a matter of time before an athlete gets severely injured. Some female golfers are assigned plainclothes security, but they feel particularly vulnerable given their proximity to the fans before, during, and after play.
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, Świątek 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.
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.
The prospect of putting athletes in a box to protect them from crazies may be inevitable. That's because the stalking is not just a security problem. Far too many mentally disturbed people are free and roaming the streets when they should be confined to an institution.
The stalking of athletes will only get worse. It's a tragedy waiting to happen.
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