The Pecking Order at Men's Curling

Probably the most disturbing image of the 2006 Winter Games came from the bronze medal match in Men's Curling.

It will no doubt torment my waking hours and haunt me in my sleep for weeks, if not months. It's seared into my memory.

Who would have guessed that a Fellini film sort of character would arise to take attention off the stones on the ice?

TORINO, Italy (Reuters) -- Britain's match against the United States for the men's curling bronze medal was interrupted on Friday when a male streaker ran across the ice.

With poultry for a loin cloth, the man vaulted the barriers and danced up and down the side of the ice sheet for several minutes before being bundled away by bemused rink attendants.

The British team, skipped by David Murdoch, who were lagging the U.S. 6-2 in the sixth end, rested on their brooms, laughing, while the streaker jiggled past.

As armed police ejected the man, naked into the cold mountain air, he was heard to plead in a Scottish accent: "Please will someone bring me my clothes?"



The chicken man flopped around for "several minutes"?

Several minutes is an eternity to watch a naked saggy guy wearing a rubber chicken dance up and down.

Why did it take so long for security to nab him?

And why did the police subject the overexposed man to the Winter wind?

Sounds like prisoner abuse to me. One might consider it TORTURE!!!

According to the Associated Press, the chicken man is famed British streaker Mark Roberts.

An Italian press agency indentified him as Patrick Roberts, a 42-year from Liverpool who was also responsible for a streaking incident at Wimbledon, and said he was in police custody.

That description would seem to better fit Mark Roberts, a man with a history of streaking and ties to GoldenPalace.com, an online casino whose name was written on the Olympic streaker's chest.

If Mark Roberts has made a number of similar appearances, I would think identifying him would be relatively easy. I guess the rubber chicken made it a bit more difficult to give a positive ID.

GoldenPalace.com has a history of interrupting major sporting events to seek publicity and has used Roberts in the past to crash the world swimming championship, Super Bowl, Real Madrid home opener, French Open tennis and UEFA Cup soccer final.

...GoldenPalace.com said nobody was available Friday for comment.

What?

Someone was available to make the comment that there would be no comment. That is a comment.

This incident certainly raises some serious security concerns, although I suppose a rubber chicken can slide through a metal detector unnoticed.

I do not understand why the chicken man was allowed to "express" himself for so long before being ejected and taken into custody.

Who knows? Maybe the World Curling Federation welcomed the excitement. I'm not big into conspiracy theories but it's possible that the event was planned to give the sport more of an edge. I think Karl Rove may have been involved.

That's all just speculation.

One thing is certain: I don't think I'll ever be able to walk down the Shake 'N Bake aisle in the grocery store without having flashbacks.