Drats I missed this ..

Curling fans were “treated” to an unexpected visitor…visitors?…during Friday’s bronze medal match. John MacDougall/Getty Images

I was watching this game live on TV (and Live Blogging) and there was no mention of this streaker. Around the ‘net .. sites are reporting the initial “sighting” from the AP news item… but I kept wondering … was this guy .. Mark Roberts?

It is now confirmed – Yes it was

Streaker interrupts bronze medal curling game
Updated Fri. Feb. 24 2006 4:53 PM ET

Associated Press

PINEROLO, Italy — Notorious British streaker Mark Roberts has apparently struck again.

A man wearing running shoes, a rubber chicken taped over his genitals and a towel on his head came out of the stands during the Olympic bronze medal curling game Friday, earning some laughs from the British and American rinks before he was taken away by security.

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.

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.

The casino also has used boxers as human billboards during fights and employed topless women to crash golf tournaments. And it had former NBA bad boy Dennis Rodman run with the bulls in Pamplona to raise money for MS research.

GoldenPalace.com has Canadian ties in that it is one of many gambling ventures licensed by the Quebec-based Kahnawake Gaming Commission. It has an office on the First Nation community near Montreal as well as in Antigua and England.

GoldenPalace.com said nobody was available Friday for comment.

At the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, a Canadian man jumped off a board into the swimming pool during a diving event. The man, who was arrested and fined 2,000 euros ($3,225 Cdn), also had GoldenPalace.com on his chest and back, but the company said it didn’t put him up to the stunt.
© 2006 Bell Globemedia Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Here’s the NBC news item (the above picture was from this NBC article)

NBCOlympics.com – Torino Tracker – Is it cold in here, or is it just me?

….. Any doubt that curling has arrived was removed when the event was interrupted by a streaker.

During the fifth end break (curling’s version of halftime and/or a seventh inning stretch), a large and not-too-muscular guy ran out across the sheet. Nothing on except for the obligatory online gambling ad and a strategically-wrapped rubber chicken.

USA skip Pete Fenson had a chuckle, and so did Rogge. Less amused was chief referee Keith Wendorf, who tackled the offender.

An umpire mercifully covered him with a coat and he was led out of the arena by the Italian polizia.

I’m more pissed off that the entire event seemed to have gone unnoticed ON TV … than the actual streaking .. but C’mon Golden Palace … Streaking at the Olympics? C’mon! That’s bad dudes.