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PYONGYANG, North Korea -- Despite claiming only two gold medals in Rio, North Korea is as determined as ever to fulfill one of leader Kim Jong Uns primary goals: to become an international sports superpower.North Koreas small Olympic team won its two golds in weightlifting, where it has a number of world-class and world-record-holding lifters, and gymnastics. Weightlifter Rim Jong Sim won the gold in the womens 75-kilogram division, while gymnast Ri Se Gwang won the mens vault. The North also won three silver and two bronze medals.When our Rim Jong Sim stood on the podium with our national anthem playing, she cried and my mother and I cried, too, as we watched on TV, Ri Yun Gum, an 18-year-old government worker, said Monday in Pyongyang as the Rio games were coming to a close. I think our athletes are able to win not just because they train hard, but because of their mental toughness.The performance was a tad shy of expectations, since North Korea had four golds in London.But transforming North Korea, which has very limited economic resources and a population of only about 25 million, into a player to be reckoned with on the global sports stage is one of Kims pet projects, and he has poured funds into the development and training of promising athletes over the past several years.It has already made a visible mark on Pyongyang.The relatively affluent capital has seen the rise of a number of major new or renovated sports venues, and each year its usually restricted streets are opened for the Pyongyang Marathon, which has become a major tourist attraction. Though pickup volleyball games and football matches in schoolyards have long been a staple in the city, its now a common sight to see young people out jogging or even canoeing on the two main rivers that run through Pyongyang.And while South Korea lets its top athletes get out of military service as a gold medal reward, elite athletes returning home to the North after winning international competitions often get a heros welcome -- and maybe a condo.Of course, Pyongyangs push to garner international prestige and generate national pride by winning medals isnt terribly original. It appears to have been pulled straight out of the playbook of former Soviet bloc countries like East Germany, and is similar to the strong political significance sports are still given in Russia and China, North Koreas two biggest historical backers.But the campaign is also seen as part of Kims effort to make North Korea a more modern nation.There are two reasons why sports are important, Jang Sok Ha, manager of the newly opened Pyongyang Sports Equipment Factory, told The Associated Press on Monday. People in good health can work harder, but they also need cultural rest and recreation.Jangs sparkling new factory, which opened in April, is a big part of the drive and is one of the largest in the country. Its task is to provide regular people affordable sports equipment -- from soccer balls to badminton rackets.Standing in the factory showroom, surrounded by everything from field hockey balls to judo uniforms and bags of talcum powder for weightlifters, Jang proudly produced a basketball signed by former NBA star Dennis Rodman, one of the only foreigners to ever meet with Kim. He then grabbed a ball emblazoned with Naesongsan, his factorys brand.Our balls are good enough to be used by the NBA, too, he said.North Koreans are able to follow the Olympics, or at least some selected events, on TV and radio broadcasts and in newspapers, all of which are run by the state.I watched the games every day, said housewife Hong Un Byol, 34. I was so happy to see our national flag raised after the gold medals. The athletes practiced a lot to give pleasure to the Marshal. Kim is often respectfully referred to by that title, one of the many that he holds.Beyond the playing field, sports have from time to time provided brief respites in the normally tense relations between the two Koreas.During the 2000 Sydney Olympics, North and South Koreans marched together under a flag that symbolized unification. North Koreas womens soccer team won gold at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, with the South winning bronze. Many South Koreans delighted in seeing players from both countries celebrate together after the medal ceremony.While such sentiments were generally absent during the Rio Olympics, one of the most touching moments came when gymnasts Hong Un Jong of North Korea and Lee Eun-ju of South Korea met on the sidelines during their event and posed together smiling for a selfie. Photos of their warm moments delighted many South Koreans and provided a rare note of concord in otherwise abysmal relations between the rivals.Officially, however, both countries frown on such meetings.The Korean Peninsula is still technically in a state of war because there has been no peace treaty signed to officially end the 1950-53 Korean War. Nearly 30,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea in what Seoul and Washington claim is a necessary deterrent to any threats from North Korea. Turning up the heat, the U.S. and South Korea just kicked off annual war games that Pyongyang says are a prelude to invasion.Games or no games, accusations against the South of trying to create trouble -- not of hugging gymnasts -- are what dominate the headlines here.---Talmadge is the APs Pyongyang bureau chief. Fake Balenciaga From China . But Bourque, who has missed three games with a lower-body injury, wont be in the lineup when the Habs travel to Buffalo to take on the Sabres on Wednesday. Fake Balenciaga Shoes .J. -- Marty Brodeur beat the Pittsburgh Penguins yet again. https://www.fakebalenciaga.com/ . -- Anaheim Ducks captain and leading scorer Ryan Getzlaf has been scratched from Sunday nights game against the Vancouver Canucks because of an upper-body injury. Fake Balenciaga . -- PGA TOUR Canada member Steve Saunders took a three-stroke lead Saturday in the Web. Fake Balenciaga 2020 . Jon Montgomerys gold medal in skeleton at the Whistler Sliding Centre and his subsequent auctioning off of a pitcher of beer in the village square elevated him to folk-hero status. Name a pole vaulter. Honestly, try naming any pole vaulter in history -- any gender, any nationality, any era.And, no, not a decathlete -- a pole vaulter.Got a name?Probably not. But for millions, the image of a photo might have flickered through your mind: that of a young woman standing in a white athletic top, her right arm extended behind her head to adjust her ponytail, her midriff showing, a pole resting across her shoulder. In the photo, which was taken in while she was in high school, Allison Stokke is looking off into the distance, clearly preparing for an attempt.The photo was posted in 2008 to a sports blog, along with the following text: Meet pole vaulter Allison Stokke... Hubba hubba and other grunting sounds.Within weeks, dozens of other blogs and message boards picked up the image. Calculating just how many people have seen the photo is impossible. But heres some anecdotal evidence to suggest that number is ridiculously high: the same week the image was posted online, Stokke opened up Facebook.She had infinity friend requests.The number of requests pouring into her account had broken Facebooks counting mechanism. Or consider this: the week after the photo appeared online, Cindy Stokke went to the neighborhood dry cleaner, where the woman behind the counter looked at her ticket, saw the last name and asked if she was related to the girl in the pole-vaulting picture.Yes, thats my daughter.Apparently everyone in Korea, where the store owner was from, was talking about the image.In the infamous photo, Stokke is competing in a high school meet. She is, in that moment, an athlete, just as she is now. The year the viral photo was taken, she was 17 years old and the best high school vaulter in the country. In the picture, she is strong, her body taut.Of course, thats not why the photo went viral -- not really. The image tore across the web because men thought she looked hot. Part of that hotness is certainly her strength, her body, which also helps make her a better pole vaulter.But lets not kid ourselves: very few people ogling the photo saw Stokke through the athlete prism. They saw sex. Hubba, hubba.The picture is like a Rubin vase for sports. What do you see when you look at the photo: a female athlete preparing to vault, or a sexy young woman striking a pose?If most people see only sex, even though Stokke was literally in the middle of a competition, and if she does not want to be a sex symbol and really loathes the idea, then how does she continue being an athlete? If society has intertwined those two identities, how does she go about being one without reinforcing the other?I feel like me and that picture are two different people, Stokke says. I feel it has taken on a life of its own. Its like that picture is my alter-ego and sometimes I feel like I use it for a positive force, and sometimes I just choose to leave it out there and not engage with it.What a strange space we launched her into -- and at age 18.Stokke is now 27, and shes still vaulting. In fact, last year, the Cal graduate moved from California to Phoenix, where shes training, working under a new coach and surrounded by the very best. She wanted to give herself the best chance to achieve her lifelong dream: making the Olympic team. The Southern California native briefly gave up her sport a few years ago, deciding she needed to move on and get her masters. But she quickly realized she wasnt yet done. She still wanted to try to twist her body over greater and greater heights.The USA Track & Field Olympic Trials are in Eugene, Oregon, on Friday. Stokke will be watching from the sidelines, as her 4.20 meter entry mark didnt meet the 4.50m minimum standard, but shell continue to train and compete.Its July of 2015, and Stokke is sitting in the back of a coffee shop in Orange County when the guy at the next table leans into her space. She catches the movement out of the corner of her eye. Her smile freezes; her hand tightens around her café au lait.I couldnt help but eavesdrop, he says, but were you talking about sports?She was, in fact. She was talking about why she first started vaulting (she grew out of gymnastics), her years at the University of California (2006 to 2010), the small international competitions in Europe where you rent a car and drive all night instead of paying for a hotel, and about chasing the 2016 Olympic dream.Stokke smiles in the mans direction without making eye contact and says: Yup!He waits for her to say more, then nods, satisfied, as if this is the coolest thing hes heard in a while, then he drifts back into his space.Stokke exhales.In the months after the picture went viral, pphotographers would kneel beneath her at meets, shooting upward as she stood on the runway before an attempt.dddddddddddd Grown men would send postcards, with handwritten notes, to her home in California -- some of the sentiments were kind; some were not.When Stokke vaulted at Cal, the school removed her headshot from its website because men would constantly request a signed copy. And in the years immediately after the image went viral, she would often get asked to pose for pictures with men who couldnt believe they had run into the young woman from that super hot photo on the internet.Or with men who really could believe they had, because they orchestrated a meeting, attending the event just to take a picture with Stokke.So, no, its not an overblown reaction if Stokke builds an invisible wall when someone unexpectedly leans into her space. A lot of people have leaned into her space. And shes mostly chosen to stay still -- very still -- and wait for them to go away.Google her name -- its almost like she didnt exist between 2009 and 2014. At that point, I wasnt the best vaulter in the country, so why should I be getting that much attention? she says. It cut the other way, too, though. I think at some point Cal just decided: Dont put anything up about her. So even if I jumped high or won a meet, they wouldnt put up a picture or article, and thats actually the kind of recognition I would have liked to see.Even as a teenager, Stokke recognized her situation as a Catch-22. The attention she had garnered -- coverage by Glamour, offers from Maxim, calls to appear on The Today Show -- was disproportionate to her athletic achievements. Though she didnt yet have the language for her predicament, she sensed that waiting out the storm would be the best solution for her.Some people around her wondered why she didnt seize the moment: accept the spread in Maxim, the modeling contract, fly to New York to appear on the morning shows. Do all of it. After all, who knows if youll have the chance again?But the part never mentioned is that, once someone walks through that door, it snaps shut. Once a female athlete is publicly labeled beautiful, we offer her the world. But heres the trick: once she accepts it, we tear her apart, say shes exploiting and sexualizing herself. Oh, and we also say that shes not even that good, anyway.Ive never seen this viral thing happen to a male athlete who isnt also already the best at what they do, Stokke says. Yes, male athletes are also hailed for being incredibly attractive, but theyre usually top-ranked in the world, too.So Stokke kept fighting to become better.I think I saw her grow up faster, says her mom, Cindy. She saw how the world can be, saw how some people can be really cruel, some people can be great. I think she realized, I cant be so concerned about what everyone else thinks; I have to pursue my career and my dream and my sport.Stokke is not a victim.On this point, she is adamant, almost desperate. She did one print interview when this whole thing happened, with a magazine, and the energy conveyed by the piece was that Stokke was somehow wronged. Truth is: convincing people that unwanted attention from men isnt flattering -- and often also feels threatening -- is difficult.Stokke isnt good at being a victim. Shes an athlete; shes conditioned to mold herself to become whatever necessary. If she was going to be in the limelight, it was going to be because she was an athlete, and she knew that was about her looks, says Cindy. She wanted to be known for her ability to pole vault. Thats what she wanted.Says Stokke: At Cal, I wrote about it once for a Sociology class. We were supposed to write about some deep thing that affected you emotionally, and then you had the option to share, or not share and delete it. And I didnt share it. I deleted it. I wish I still had that somewhere, because I think it would be very different now.My response back then, in 2008 -- was I flattered? In some ways, sure. But I was overwhelmed, too. And I think my response to being overwhelmed was to just stay away from it entirely. But now, Im trying to figure out how to reclaim it and own it and push it in the right direction. And benefit from it -- in terms of fueling my training. And if I try to ignore it, it will take on a life of its own. Which is what I did in college: ignore it. And I lost control of my own story.In an earlier version of this story, we incorrectly said Stokke would be competing in the?USA Track & Field Olympic trials on July 8. ' ' '