Reports of a stalker preying on several members of the UW women’s gymnastics team have been somewhat exaggerated, a source close to the team said yesterday.

A member of the team filed a police report before the team competed at the NCAA West regional championship last week. She said she had received several calls on her cell phone from a man who told her he knew of her whereabouts at night, once describing where she had been walking and what she had been wearing at the time.

Three other members of the team each received one phone call from a man the gymnasts believe was the same person. Only one gymnast received repeated calls.

The source close to the team said team members have been advised to be especially cautious and avoid walking alone at night. The phone calls have been especially disconcerting given the shootings at Virginia Tech Monday and the on-campus slaying of UW employee Rebecca Griego by her ex-boyfriend Jonathan Rowan April 2.

Female gymnasts are not uncommon targets of stalkers, especially at the end of the season when their names and photographs, often showing them competing in leotards, are published in newspapers and on sports Web sites, the source said.

In 1998, Olympic gold medalist Shannon Miller, the most decorated gymnast in U.S. history, filed a restraining order against a man who had been pursuing her. The man, later revealed as a classmate of Miller’s at the University of Oklahoma, was convicted of stalking.

Other popular female athletes, among them tennis champion Serena Williams, Olympic swimmer Janet Evans and figure skater Katarina Witt have also been victims of stalkers, ESPN.com reported.

Reach reporter Blythe Lawrence at news@thedaily.washington.edu.