Quote from Article :

A photo of Phelps smoking marijuana out of a bong at a party in November has brought his endorsement career to a crossroads, marketing experts say. And the megabucks that were flowing in could soon go down the drain unless America's superstar swimmer, who won a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games, changes his ways.

"It's certainly not good and it’s a disaster in terms of the near future," said Robert Tuchman, president of Premiere Corporate Events, a sports entertainment firm. "He's very unlikely to have new sponsors come on board and endorse him. And there's the potential for other sponsors to pull the plug on him, using this is an opportunity. He's going to take a big hit on this."

Phelps, 23, acknowledged on Sunday that the photo, which first appeared in the tabloid News of the World, was of him, and he cited his age as an excuse for his poor judgment.

Source.

Is that bad?

yeah lol, hash is a drug, and he's like the super olimpian, and a role model to young swimmers

softdrugs....

Its just pot, its not like he's spamming forums demanding the VW. No big deal.

"everybody's doin' it!"

Its not that bad

And i must admit, that guy really looks like a fish...

Quote from chavm481 :

"everybody's doin' it!"

You ever saw one? Touched?

E: Fish? lol. Ik dacht meer aan een bezem..

unable to locate fail

Sorry, who is he again?

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

Sorry, who is he again?

he is fish man




no, he is a swimmer and won like 80 medals on the olympic games o_O

What's the problem? What will they go on about next, world renowed cyclist seen in pub drinking a dirty bucket of spirits through a straw while being given an erotic dance by one of the girls behind the bar? Just a Saturday night in toon. 'cept the guy is 40, fat, never been on a bike on his life and called Ted, but who pays attention to such details anyway?

When you're Michael Phelps (the most successful olympian in history), whether you like it or not, you do have a certain responsibility. He is looked up to by younger swimmers all over the world, and he is their hero. When you have that kind of fan-base, you have to be bloody careful as to not break the law, especially in a society where anyone will sell a photo of you so much as picking your nose, to a newspaper. Another win for the British gutter-press...

I don't have sympathy for him - and I doubt he does for himself either; it's a silly mistake to make for someone so much in the public eye. It probably won't affect him much - just a few angry meetings with his sponsors and a rap across the knuckles. But he needs to watch out.

This new is alteast a day late!

The funny thing is he seem (from the pictures) to have replaced the water in the bong with alcohol. Last time we tried that we've slept for 3 days, being totally stoned. Sure it's less harsh than smoking weed but the reason peoples (usually) smoke from a bong is because the effect is not as hard as it is from smoking it.

But yea replacing water with alcohol = BAD.

Quote from th84 :

Its just pot, its not like he's spamming forums demanding the VW. No big deal.

Thanks for that, th. It would be fine if my computer was working, but I have to bring my laptop home from work to use. Now I have to try to explain to my boss the ice tea blown all over the laptop and try to talk him into getting me a new one...

weed isnt performance enhancing, indeed, you would just sit about and do fuck all, and i dont see the problem. alcohol is a much worse ' drug', and nobody kicks up a fuss about that.

What's the problem? I think he will be more popular for doing this, it shows he is not just a PR robot and actually wants to try things for himself. The drug is so wide spread these days that nobody really gives a crap, and our government upgrading it to Class B against all advice just shows how out of touch with reality they are.

I can get hold of weed more easily than I can get hold of paracetamol, and I don't even touch the stuff, so I have not deliberately associated myself with people that smoke it or deal it. I know a guy that lived 5 houses down the street from a police station that had every draw in his bedroom filled with bags of the stuff ready to sell to friends. It's not cool or clever, it's just a fact of life, it's socially accepted and if the governments did their job properly it would be legalised.

I'm not an expert and don't claim to be, but when looking at the pic in question you'll notice that the bong isn't even full. What a puss! I think he should have to return the medals.

Epic Win!

At least for me it is. Now I can bust my swim coaches about how they keep telling us to be like him. The worse he acts the more fun I have.

The horror the horror, a kid smoking a bong.

Well, his swimming career is over, but perhaps he could become president...

Drink too much alcohol and you end up like George W Bush, smoke some weed and you win gold medals at the olympics. Don't question my logic.

It just makes the perverted sytsem of what's allowed and what's not in our society obvious once more again.

It's no more harmful then smoking cigarettes or getting drunk, so IMHO not worth the fuss.
But seeing it's happening in bigot and hypicritical america, it's a scandal that will propably end Phelp's proffessional carreer, as most sponsors jump off, only to have him come back gloriously in one or two years, as a cleansed and changed person.

Quite rediculous really.

Oh, well. Looks like he'll have to start doing what ever it is that the snowboarding team is doing to get past drug testing.

It's a very media-hungry world. Everyone's looking to ruin someone's career. If it was your average Joe, it wouldn't matter, but it's someone in the public spotlight.

It's the same across the board, although I'm not saying that smoking dope is "excuseable", it's certainly been blown out of proportion... typical media shit.

What Phelps does in his private life is his own business. He was not on drugs at the time he won his medals and that's what counts. I couldn't care less about what he does outside of competitions.