Michael Phelps hauled in eight gold medals in Beijing, and now he's back in the spotlight after photos from a tabloid depict someone who is allegedly Phelps smoking a bong.
News of the World, a British tabloid, posted the photo on its site on Saturday.
The photo was allegedly taken at the University of South Carolina in November 2008, obviously after the Beijing games. If it sounds like I'm dropping "allegedly" in this post a lot, it's because there haven't really been any independent confirmations on this, and the fact that the unwatermarked photo also popped up on
Star magazine's site leads me to believe someone selling the photos got paid, and probably twice, so anything for a buck, you know? I'd hardly say this photo is
definitively Phelps.
For the original story,
click here.
UPDATE, 3:30PM Sunday: Phelps has admitted it's him in the photo. He's sorry. --
Ziller
This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
24 comments
Comments
Not a big deal
by cjbassett on Jan 31, 2009 8:43 PM EST reply actions
#1) Not him!!!!!
#2) Who cares
#3) Is pot a performance enhancing drug?
#4) My grandma prolly smoked pot and she never made the news
by shvd98z24 on Jan 31, 2009 8:54 PM EST reply actions
Man, who cares. Pot shouldn’t even be illegal anyways
by Brownsound on Jan 31, 2009 9:12 PM EST reply actions
lets take his medals away!
by shewy26 on Jan 31, 2009 9:14 PM EST reply actions
the guy looks more like justin verlander
by Wilmer1980 on Jan 31, 2009 9:16 PM EST reply actions
It doesn’t even look like him. If it is, all I can say is, after smoking all the competition, weed is the only thing left to smoke.
by 5150hog on Jan 31, 2009 9:19 PM EST reply actions
Doesn’t look like him at all. And if it is, who cares?
by DuckedOut on Jan 31, 2009 9:25 PM EST reply actions
That looks like me.
by The Boondocks on Jan 31, 2009 9:52 PM EST reply actions
no chance in hell thats phelps. looks nothing like him.
by melo15fan15 on Jan 31, 2009 10:15 PM EST reply actions
uh oh, i might have to take back what i just said…… look at this picture which is clearly phelps…. he’s wearing the same watch.
http://backseatcuddler.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/michael-phelps-stripper-2.jpg
by melo15fan15 on Jan 31, 2009 10:22 PM EST reply actions
First of all why does this stuff always happen at USC (Cal or Car)? Those schools should be renamed Saddam and Gomorrah.
Secondly how else to you think he grew those gills and webbed feet? Mutation baby!
by njm1314 on Jan 31, 2009 10:28 PM EST reply actions
why publish something (SN) that you can not confirm?
by erson83 on Jan 31, 2009 10:41 PM EST reply actions
Whomever sold this pic is a giant douche.
by MyBiznitchIsTheShiznit on Jan 31, 2009 11:22 PM EST reply actions
melo15 — That’s a fine find right there. I’d said to a few other people in the office that if anything did point to it being Phelps it’s that baller time piece that not every guy is going to walk around with. I didn’t think to look for another photo of the same watch though.
And to all the who cares/it shouldn’t be illegal people, I don’t think I made any judgments about Phelps in this post as far as right/wrong, did I? As far as who cares? Well, if he were busted and faced some sort of ban, it could endanger a potential run in 2012, so that’s why we should care.
by littmann.tsn on Feb 1, 2009 12:30 AM EST reply actions
I agree with erson, saying allegedly is not the same thing as not printing the same things that gossip magazines publish, even if it is about an athlete. Hell, last year, CC Sabathia was having a massive binge eating problem, and at one point was larger than 450 lbs in one gossip paper I saw. Wonder why I didnt see that come up in here? As far as the illegal part, yes technically you never passed judgement, however, you did much worse. You reprinted an unverified photo, which the link to doesn’t work anymore, that if it is true, could have some damaging implications on his career. Also, I am a senior at the University of South Carolina, and yeah he was here, and yeah I know some of the swimmers who he was hanging out with. But to take a picture and then link it with a University as well? We are having a bad enough time recovering from Borat incidents… the last thing we need now is a bunch of people to start talking about how Phelps was at USC when this happens. How does that appear to people who know nothing of the University or the state of SC? Now dont get me wrong, there are plenty of bongs around, and students that myself included, may or may not have smoked some of them. ;) I just hope for your sake that the photo is of him, becasue if it is not, and any bad comes from this…. well I think in law school they call it slander or libel, something like that, civil courts deal with the defamation of character, the loss of sponsorship$, possible lost wages from his job, etc
Like I said, I think this is kind of funny, and even moreso because I know some of the swimmers, but I do not think that SN should have passed this along.
Andrew Lance
USC ’10
by catcher86 on Feb 1, 2009 4:56 AM EST reply actions
What a joke! That doesn’t even look like Phelps!
by Tileking59 on Feb 1, 2009 10:38 AM EST reply actions
The real scandal here is that he visited the Univ. of South Carolina. Columbia is an absolute garbage dump.
by CBass3 on Feb 1, 2009 11:07 AM EST reply actions
who cares…
by donny_jays6 on Feb 1, 2009 11:16 AM EST reply actions
Would this be news if he was drinking a beer?Nope, it wouldn’t.Weed is on the same level as alcohol. We just haven’t advanced our Legal System and Common Sense to reflect that.You know what I see when I see one of the best athletes in the world smoking weed… a great endorsement for Marijuana Reform.For some reason we ignorantly perpetuate this idea that Weed is a big deal. We somehow try to act shocked when an Athlete likes to smoke it. Because we still primitively keep it illegal we force it to carry a bad wrap.GET OVER IT PEOPLE, WEED IS HERE TO STAY, SHOULD BE LEGAL, AND ISN’T REALLY BAD FOR YOU (in moderation).The true story here is why Phelps hasn’t clubbed the Photographer over the head with one of those Gold Medals for leaking this story.
by XLI on Feb 1, 2009 11:19 AM EST reply actions
Phelps has come out and acknowledged it was him
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/swimming/news/story?id=3876804
by espnguy on Feb 1, 2009 2:04 PM EST reply actions
Link should work now
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/swimming/news/story?id=3876804
by espnguy on Feb 1, 2009 2:06 PM EST reply actions
The ninth Gold is Colombian.
by L'etat, c'est moi on Feb 1, 2009 4:09 PM EST reply actions
ha who cares hes not doing anything that enhances his performance and well just look at the bong its a beauty
by plantmanager69 on Feb 1, 2009 4:09 PM EST reply actions
so it is him, well then i apologize for my strong words, and CBass while it isnt exactly the greatest place in the world, calling it a garbage dump is extreme, it is actually a very nice place
by catcher86 on Feb 2, 2009 2:51 AM EST reply actions
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