michael phelps smoking weed

Dude, like Michael Phelps is like totally going to White Castle. (AP Images)

This just in: Michael Phelps will be loading up on the Doritos for today’s Super Bowl action.

News of the World has obtained a photo of Phelps hitting the bong at a party. Bye bye multi-million-dollar endorsement deals! Moreover, four-year drug-taking bans are in place that could put an end to Phelps’ 2012 goal to compete at the Olympic games in London. News of the World also reports that when Phelps’ PR team got wind of the bong photo, they offered the tabloid “a raft of extraordinary incentives not to run the bong picture.”

The picture was taken on November 6, just weeks after his eight-medal win in Beijing. Phelps was visiting a girl he was dating at the University Of South Carolina. Phelps showed up at a house party, shocking the party-goers.

“He didn’t know many people so you’d think he’d be a little shy. But he was loud, obnoxious and slamming beers from the get-go,” a source told the tabloid.

There are also reports that Phelps spent the weekend partying rather than hanging out with the girl, Jordan Matthews, he was there to visit.

“At one point someone asked him if he wanted to smoke some weed. Michael didn’t hesitate and headed to a small back room, where he was immediately handed a big red bong,” claims a source.

Phelps has acknowledged that the photo showing him smoking marijuana from a bong is real. He released this statement:

I engaged in behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment. I’m 23 years old and despite the successes I’ve had in the pool, I acted in a youthful and inappropriate way, not in a manner people have come to expect from me. For this, I am sorry. I promise my fans and the public it will not happen again.

EARLIER: Olympic Champion Michael Phelps, who vaulted to international stardom during the 2008 Summer Olympics by winning a record eight gold medals in swimming, has been caught in a very compromising position, according to a report by the British paper News of the World.

The paper has a photo of Phelps smoking from a bong, a water pipe normally used for smoking marijuana. (View the photo here.) The alleged photo was taken at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, where Phelps was visiting a female student who he was secretly seeing. The paper’s anonymous source relates that Phelps partied hard each night he was there, which is not out of keeping with other reports of the Olympian since his swimming triumphs.

News of the World also makes the very provocative claim that people representing Phelps tried to snuff out the story and offered the paper extraordinary incentives not to publish their story.