Roger Skedd The Naked Olympian

Roger Skedd  by Justin Penrose, Sunday Mirror

By day Roger Skedd is a ­champ­ion athlete, training for hours on end as he dreams of winning Olympic gold in the decathlon at London 2012.

But at night the 28-year-old hopeful takes off his training vest and running shoes... and dons nothing but a pinny and a bow tie to work as a NAKED ­BUTLER.

Bronze medal winner Roger, who has represented Britain in European Team Championships and Scotland in last year’s ­Commonwealth Games in Delhi, is often the main ­attraction at anything from boozy hen nights to gay parties. He works for three male stripper ­agencies to make ends meet as he has not been successful enough to get ­funding from UK Athletics.

 Roger said: “It’s a bit of a crazy job and it’s not the sort of thing I would choose to do, but it pays decent money and allows me to keep training, which is what I’m passionate about. Being a naked butler you have to deal with two ends of the spectrum.

 

“Sometimes you’re at a ­several million pound townhouse in London and others you’re in a two-bedroom terrace in a council estate in the back of beyond ­dealing with people who are totally leathered.”

He added: “I’ve been to 21st birthday parties where all of the girls want to have their picture taken with me, which is flattering but awkward. I can see thefury in the ­boyfriend’s eyes as they take the photo.

“Sometimes it’s gay parties, which are a bit of an eye opener. Basically you don’t know what you’re being thrown into. It could be 30 people screaming and drunk, or all quite sedate and you have to get people in the mood for a ­party. Some people think they can throw ­themselves at you but you have to take the reins and let them know where the boundaries are. Otherwise it could get out of ­control.”

Roger, who lives in ­Uxbridge, west London, also works at Brunel ­University indoor ­athletics track ­doing coaching and on the front desk to raise cash. He said: “It’s ridiculous that I have to do this to make ends meet. The decathlon as an event is ­completely overlooked and the amount of effort we put into training for 10 events isn’t ­respected.”

Roger made headlines last year when The ­Duchess of Cornwall praised him for his physique when she ­spotted him bare- chested at the warm-up track during Delhi’s Commonwealth Games. Speaking to Roger and ­fellow British decathlete Tom Reynolds, Camilla said: “You guys look very fit” as she gestured towards their muscles.

Polling Suggests that Muslims & Atheists most likely to Reject Violence

 

Tags: barack obama, gallup survey, protestant christians

New data from polling firm Gallup shows that out of all the religious groups in the U.S., Muslims are most likely to reject violence, followed by the non-religious atheists and agnostics.

By Stephen C. Webster

Through interviews with 2,482 Americans, Gallup found that 78 percent of Muslims believe violence which kills civilians is never justified, whereas just 38 percent of Protestant Christians and 39 percent of Catholics agreed with that sentiment. Fifty-six percent of atheists answered similarly.

When Gallup put the question a bit more pointedly, asking if it would be justified for "an individual person or a small group of persons to target and kill civilians," the responses were a bit more uniform. Respondents from nearly all groups were widely opposed to such tactics, with Protestants and Catholics at 71 percent against. Muslims still had the highest number opposed, at 89 percent. Seventy-six percent of atheists were also opposed.

The Gallup survey, conducted over the course of a year, was designed to measure religious and non-religious attitudes toward violence 10 years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Perhaps most tellingly, 92 percent of Muslims surveyed said they did not believe any Muslim in their community had sympathy toward al Qaeda terrorists, but just 56 percent of Protestants and 63 percent of Catholics said the same.

The survey also found that President Barack Obama enjoys an 80 percent approval rating among Muslim Americans, according to an attached report, "Muslim Americans: Faith, Freedom, and the Future" (PDF).

American sentiment toward Muslims at large has only sank in recent years. A Pew poll found in August of 2010 that just 30 percent of Americans have a favorable view of Muslims. Republicans lead the divide, at 54 percent who hold unfavorable views, compared to 27 percent of Democrats.

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