ATO IN SEX SCANDAL
Olympic medallist threatens legal action over ‘gross fabrications’
By Essiba Small
Four-time Olympic medallist Ato Boldon has said reports of a sex scandal involving him and Nova Peris, Australia’s first indigenous Olympic gold medallist and senator, were a gross fabrication.
The report, published in the Northern Territory (NT) News yesterday in Australia, alleges Boldon and Peris had an extra-marital affair back in 2010, when he was “handpicked” by Peris, now a senator, to run the ten-day Jump Start to London training programme.
The paper also alleged in its breaking story yesterday Peris used taxpayers’ funds to finance her “extra martial sexual tryst” with the then 35-year-old Boldon back then.
However, in a statement on his Facebook page yesterday, Boldon accused NT News of gross fabrications, saying Peris “is a former training partner of mine and has been a friend for almost 20 years”.
Boldon said his trip to Australia back in 2010 was for the purpose of holding several youth clinics and that it was a successful undertaking.
“The trip was co-organised by one of my now-deceased colleagues at Athletics Australia,” Boldon said, adding: “I will be following the senator’s lead, including, but not limited to, pursuing all legal action possible for this malicious misrepresentation of the details surrounding my presence in Australia in 2010.”
Ato Boldon’s father, Guy Boldon, told the Express yesterday he was unaware of the sex scandal issue, and that he first heard of it in a brief call from a friend yesterday afternoon.
Social media was buzzing among locals with the news of the alleged sex scandal. On Twitter, followers of Boldon’s page poked fun at the former athlete and NBC broadcaster.
Errol Fabien’s 1998 song, “Ato Tea Party”, also got fresh interest and was shared many times across Facebook timelines.
A bit about Boldon
A former senator, Boldon won his first international senior-level medal at the 1995 World Championships, where he took home the bronze in the 100m. At 21, he was youngest athlete ever to win a medal in that event.
At the 1996 Summer Olympics, Boldon placed third in the 100m and 200m events, both behind world records.
In 1997, he won the 200m at the World Championships in Athens, Greece; Trinidad and Tobago’s first world title in the Athletics World Championships, making him only one of only a few sprinters to win both a World Junior and World Senior title.
In the field of broadcasting, Boldon cut his teeth quite by accident after injury forced him out of the 1999 World Championships in Spain. Boldon was hired by the BBC to do commentary and analysis for the Championships and proved to be an instant hit with the audience. He joined NBC as a track and field analyst in 2007.
