French figure skating heart-throb Brian Joubert has six world championship medals to show for his long career -- plus the undying devotion of legions of female fans.
Brian Joubert
Sochi: Some of his many admirers have shown themselves ready to take desperate measures to get closer to the sport's poster boy.
Brian Joubert
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"I've had offers of marriage. Women want to divorce and leave home to come and live with me in Poitiers. They're sure that it could work," the 2007 world champion said, adding that some would even go as far as to sleep outside the door of his hotel room.
"There was a fan who wanted to become my agent. She went to see all the gala promoters telling them she was my agent and that caused a lot of problems for me. "Some hide underwear in presents. One woman asked me to sign her chest, and another her buttocks," he added with a smile.
Only a few days ago an Italian woman approached him with tracing paper asking him to sign his initials.
"She wants to get a tattoo. Where? I don't know! Maybe she'll show me!"
The 29-year-old is always followed by an army of female fans. Some have been trailing him for years, and travel as far as Japan and China, covering thousands of kilometres just to catch a glimpse of him.
He has become friends with some but nothing more, he insists. And for the past 12 years he has gathered presents of all types.
"There are clothes, stuffed animals, flowers. I've kept paintings and drawings and given the stuffed animals to kids. If I put everything I've been given together it would fill a 50-square-metre room."
Joubert, a ten-time European medallist, is competing in his final Olympics in Sochi. But in a message sure to disappoint his ardent admirers on Valentine's Day, he says his heart is already taken.
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