Michael Phelps suspended for smoking weed

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source: huffingtonpost

Michael Phelps’ day grew lousier by the hour on Thursday. First he lost a major sponsor, then he got suspended. The Olympic great was suspended from competition for three months by USA Swimming, the latest fallout from a photo that showed him inhaling from a marijuana pipe.

The sport’s national governing body also cut off its financial support to Phelps for the same three-month period, effective immediately.

“This is not a situation where any anti-doping rule was violated, but we decided to send a strong message to Michael because he disappointed so many people, particularly the hundreds of thousands of USA Swimming member kids who look up to him as a role model and a hero,” the Colorado Springs-based federation said in a statement.

“Michael has voluntarily accepted this reprimand and has committed to earn back our trust.”

Phelps won a record eight gold medals in Beijing and returned to America as one of the world’s most acclaimed athletes. He made headlines of a different kind, however, in the wake of the photo, published Sunday by News of the World, a British tabloid.

Earlier Thursday, cereal and snack maker Kellogg Co. announced it wouldn’t renew its sponsorship contract with Phelps, saying his behavior is “not consistent with the image of Kellogg.” The swimmer appeared on the company’s cereal boxes after his Olympic triumph.

“Michael accepts these decisions and understands their point of view,” said one of his agents, Drew Johnson. “He feels bad he let anyone down. He’s also encouraged by the thousands of comments he’s received from his fans and the support from his many sponsors. He intends to work hard to regain everyone’s trust.”

Phelps’ coach, Bob Bowman, said he believes Phelps will emerge from the experience a stronger swimmer and person.

Yup thats the photo of Michael Phelps smoking weed that everyone is going nuts over.

OMG surely its the pot that has made him the superstar he is. Perhaps he gets a roll of cookie dough for every gold medal.

HuffPost’s Marcus Baram reports: If Michael Phelps is arrested, it would be a rarity in the recent history of drug prosecutions in Richland County, South Carolina.

Doug Strickland, the head of the Richland County Public Defender’s office, told Huffington Post that in his 21 years as a public defender, he could not recall a case where someone was criminally charged with drug possession based on photographic evidence and an admission of non-specific wrongdoing.

“I cannot think of an instance where it’s happened,” said Strickland, pointing out that Phelps has not even confessed to possessing mariiuana, simply acknowledging “regrettable” behavior and “bad judgment.”

“You have to prove that he possessed it and a photograph is not enough – If you wanted to press the issue, he could go out and locate who was there and squeeze them. That’s a lot of effort for a misdemeanor that carries a fine of 30 days in jail or $500.”

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, who is known for a tough stance on drugs, rose through the ranks soon after the TV series “Miami Vice” hit the airwaves.

This is only slightly more embarrassing than Phelps’ other punishment, today’s loss of a cereal deal that expired this month anyway, for Corn Flakes, which Phelps doesn’t even eat.

With $100 million in expected lifetime endorsements, we’re guessing Phelps isn’t living on USA Swimming’s stipends. But the suspension will not help his image, given the message it sends:

“We decided to send a strong message to Michael because he disappointed so many people, particularly the hundreds of thousands of USA Swimming member kids who look up to him as a role model and a hero,” the federation said in a statement.

Subway was reported to be on the fence about Phelps following the bong incident; maybe the suspension will push the sandwich-seller to sever ties. Pot smokers aren’t known for their love of petit, low-calorie processed-turkey sandwiches anyway.

On the other hand, USA Swimming can’t be that mad at the Olympic champion. His suspension will end just in time to let Phelps participate in the 2009 World Swimming World Swimming Championships in Rome, broadcast on NBC for the first time this year, thanks to Phelps. He’ll be fine.

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.

For more on Phelps, check out HuffPost’s Michael Phelps BigNews Page.

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 6th, 2009 at 12:39 am and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.