Internet has the hots for Olympic gymnast Alicia Sacramone

U.S. gymnast Alicia Sacramone at last night's Olympic competition. (Photo credit: US Presswire)

The eldest U.S. Olympic gymnast, Alicia Sacramone, may have taken most of the blame for Tuesday night's loss to China after two notable screw-ups.

Yet Sacramone has gained a legion of new fans, apparently not for her athletic talents but for her looks. Call it the Anna Kournikova effect.

The flexible athlete spent much of Tuesday's NBC broadcast in the spotlight, though not for the proudest reasons, and viewers took notice.

Immediately after the women's gymnastics competition, the phrase "Alicia Sacramone is hot" shot to No. 1 on Google's hot trends list. Hordes of web surfers scoured the depths of Google for information on and photos of the athlete. (Psst! Right over here.)

Facebook groups sprang up overnight for fans ogling the Olympian. One was created Wednesday morning around 10 a.m. and has already netted 400 members. Group creator Tyler Herrick, a student at the University of Maryland, wrote on the message board: "Dont worry fellas ill put some pictures of her up when i get home from work. So you can imagine whatever dream youve got going there." Later, he made good on his promise.

Existing Facebook groups saw increased activity as well. The Alicia Sacramone Fan Club has more than 5,300 members, gaining 1,000 recruits since Wednesday, and experienced a jolt of activity on its message board. A similar effect took place on her official fan page. And there's hope for those who may have written off gymnasts as potential mates after seeing the baby-faced Chinese competitors. The description for "Guys (or Gals) with the hots for Alicia Sacramone," a clear competitor to Herrick's Facebook group, reads: "SHE'S 20, so she's not jailbait!"

Outside the social networking realm, the Alicia Sacramone's Fan Site servers seem to be getting hit pretty hard. Pages were taking considerably longer to load Wednesday than they did Tuesday night when some of us were looking for pictures of ... uh, never mind.

-- Mark Milian

Comments

[Jimmy]

its ok to be jealous, if your ugly and old ............... Mary Gennevive *cough* *cough*

[ghjh]

if you think she should get a medal because she's hot... wrong contest, that's miss universe, you idiots.

[Bert]

Speaking for myself, I think she should have gotten a medal because the other gymnast went down on her knees out of bounds.

Also, she is hot.

[kara]

Alicia's horrible performance at the Olympics has created a new phrase.

When a team would have won the gold but didn't because 1 team member screwed up big time, it's called the SACROMONE SILVER.

Too bad for Nastia and Shaun that she ended up costing them the gold for the team. She couldn't even perform better than a bunch of Chinese 12 year olds.

[Sam]

I think is Alicia is moderately attractive, but only that. I think both Nastia and Shawn are much prettier. I'm just talking about their faces. I do think Alicia should've won the bronze in vault, though.

[mark]

Alicia Sacramone is really a BEAUTIFUL, talented, great gal. Actually too, Nastia and Shawn and all the rest on the USA team are great and did outstanding, truly a joy to see them perform -- and ALL are very cute - speaking from a guy's point of view.
In particular though, for my taste and heart, Alicia Sacramone is really amazing and captivating in many ways. Those big beautiful brown eyes are truly wonderful to me. She has such a nice shapely "woman's build" - something often not so common with women in her sport. All guys who have seen her know what I'm talking about -- she has just a captivating, strong, sexy, feminine appeal and presence; and she looks like such a nice and intelligent, gentle-natured woman... Any guy would really be lucky.
Of course, I'm kinda partial to gymnasts, as their sport requires such astounding ability, strength, athleticism and devotion -- they are truly in the best shape a person can be in, athletically and strength-wise. I am a guy who has always enjoyed gymnastics and gymnastic-oriented exercises, so I really appreciate their ability.
So, naturally, if a totally GORGEOUS female gymnast like Alicia is in front of me, she is bound to capture my heart...
Anyway, Alicia Sacramone: beautiful, beautiful, talented gal. A great catch for any guy.

[raul velazquez]

oh! alish, only simple beautiful girl

i hope someday meet her

i love you patrick