How does a pole vaulting champion draw attention to himself when his sponsorship deal expires? Personally, I would go the route of vaulting over a 20-foot long pit of alligators, piranhas and sharks, but I’m American: everything begins and ends with Evel Knievel. But Romain Mesnil went a different, decidedly more Continental route: streaking.

REUTERS says that the French vaulter and 2007 World Championship silver medalist took matters into his own hands after losing his sponsorship deal with Nike. He decided to go running naked through the streets of Paris - with nothing but his stiff pole high in the air - as a way to gain notoriety and … ahem … exposure for his plight. And of course, he made a video of it, which is after the jump. (Don’t worry, black boxes are in the important places.

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• We’re staying positive about South Florida coach Jim Leavitt - positive that he’s gone bonkers at this press conference.

(Really, Jim, you need to cool off)

• What folks could be asking come January: Who let the Vick out? (Who? Who-who?)

• A Idaho high school football fighter flattens his coach - and it’s finally caught on tape!

• Meanwhile, this Sixers cheerleader falls head over heels, and it hurts.

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The LONDON TIMES has an epic piece on Yelena Isinbayeva, the current world record holder in the pole vault and recently named World Athlete of the Year.

(Isinbayeva (l) is hot, but doesn’t stack up to Alenka Bikar)

Apparently Ms. Isinbayeva hasn’t endeared herself to her competitors over the years with her standoff attitude and candor about their looks. Excerpt:

She is the self-styled beauty of athletics, a Volgograd vixen who says that she is happy if her rivals call her a harpy or a bitch while she bestrides centre stage as the sport’s ultimate drama queen.

It’s a shame we haven’t heard (and seen) more from her until now. But with track now off the map in the American sports psyche (even in an Olympic year), we’ll have to settle for some of her delicious comments in the Times piece - and millions of tribute videos on Youtube. Read more…

Darren Rovell today has a video interview with American gymnast Nastia Liukin, who unwittingly provides the definitive metaphor of what the modern Olympics have become.

(Another Olympic venue that also features hotties who loves ATMs)

As part of the report Rovell said, “Liukin told us that seeing her image on advertising before the games actually gave her confidence.”

(Nastia was inconsolable after learning of those pesky ATM transaction fees)

So her Visa ads boosted her up before her Olympics appearances? Sounds a little far-fetched, until you hear the same thing come out Liukin’s mouth: “I walked into the Olympic athlete village, seeing the Visa ATM machine with my picture on it and the Chinese character saying “destiny” … for some reason it just boosted my confidence.”

Liukin’s Olympic dream is inspired by an ATM machine? Perfect.

And this isn’t a case of me taking an obscure comment out of context (2,922 mentions of it at Google News!). That same ATM machine storyline has been covered by just about every media outlet, thanks to Liukin continuing to bring it up.

The whole thing is almost as ridiculous as if Nastia had her picture on a NASCAR entry whizzing around Talladega.

Oh, wait, she does.

Also, Liukin’s plans after her gymnastics career is over will shock you. She wants to get into “modeling and acting.”

(Nastia is ready to pounce on the myriad adult modeling opportunities sure to roll in!)

I know, I had my money on E! entertainment reporter, too.

Jorge Sedano of 790 The Ticket in Miami with yet another cool find:

Apparently a YouTube user recently claimed to have found a glitch in Tiger Woods’ EA Sports video game, which had Woods being able to hit the ball while standing on water. So in response, EA shot this cute reply with Woods walking on water.

Haven’t confirmed if EA concocted the whole idea out of thin air (and created a fake account to set up the spot), but it really doesn’t matter. Great idea.

Fun clip from an old SNL Olympics bit:

Much funnier: Dennis Miller looks like Gene Simmons after a hydroxycut bender.

On NBC’s “Today” show this morning, NBC’s Meredith Vieira read this promo: “We’ve seen them run and jump and swim and tumble, but what do the Olympic athletes do behind closed doors?”

It wasn’t made immediately clear what the segment was about. Perhaps Al Roker with an investigative report on the Albanians’ flossing habits. Now when I heard the read, this is immediately what popped. Into my head, that is:

Russian track & field athlete Yelena Isinbayeva.

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