BongGate: The Michael Phelps Pot Smoking Controversy
Indeed, after Richland County, S.C., Sheriff Leon Lotttold the New York Post that he would charge Phelps if he could prove that the 14 time gold medal winning swimmer had smoked pot on his 'turf', the ante was upped even further.I've been following this story on twitter, using tweetdeck, and in just over 5 hours i"ve had 740 notifications of 'tweets' on Phelps.
Some of them have been great. You may or may not know that Twitter, as a 'microblogging' tool allows you 140 characters. So you have to be quite creative to get a point, or joke, across.
Opinion seems to be on the side of "who cares" or "get over it". Here are some of my favourites:
@mzmullerz: ZOMG! michael phelps smoked *gasp* pot? well that explains the 10 gazillion calorie diet, doesn't it? righteous bong, dude.
@jettstein: obama and now michael phelps? proof of marijuana as a performance enhancer?
@jfraga I thought the best explanation for "Phelps' behavior" was that marijuana does not interfere with your ability to be awesome.
@davidmaclean: Michael Phelps story sets new record for News of the World website hits. But where is the smoke?
@JDTwitt: Maybe Phelps could be a spokesperson for 7-11 nachos now? Just a thought.
@artman2001: I just want to say that seeing Michael Phelps taking a hit from a marijuana bong is CLASSIC, man i am proud to be an american
Of course there are more 'conservative' views, but what's interesting is that Phelps is getting a lot of support for holding his hand up, being honest and saying sorry. It isn't exactly crime of the century, and the guy does work incredibly hard to be the athlete that he is. He needs to kick back now and again.
Some of his sponsors have come out as being pretty unconcerned - though that may change if he is charged, while he has been backed as a role model by the IOC.
It looks like this story will run for a while.
In the meantime, I leave you with this: What Phelps Should Have Said
--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Get updates on Twitter@sportpsychrob
Tags:
blogging,
bonggate,
michael phelps,
microblogging,
news of the world,
olympics,
pot bong,
smoking,
tweets,
twitter
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