Phelps must rebuild from negative headlines

LAWRENCE Dallaglio's boastful admission of drugs use was a classic News of the World sting.

BAD JUDGMENT: Michael Phelps is pictured using a cannabis bong in the News of the World

It cost him the England rugby captaincy but the honours that followed - with club, country and British Lions - means it was thankfully a footnote in his illustrious career.

Michael Phelps can only hope for the same treatment following today's negative headlines in the same British newspaper.

The 14-time Olympic gold medallist - who won eight golds in Beijing last summer - was pictured smoking from a bong during a student party in South Carolina.

The contents of the bong is not known - and for that deniability Phelps can be thankful.

But the fact that 23-year old was - according to one unnamed eyewitness - getting wasted on booze shouldn't be a great surprise.

Swimmers win the Olympic gold, silver and bronze when it comes to caning it - as the once-devout Jonathan Edwards famously claimed and then denied in a newspaper column.

And surely you could forgive Phelps - who claims to have taken and passed 1500 drugs tests during his career - a few nights on the lash, following immense pressure he endured in Beijing.

However, even the merest hint of something murky could cost Phelps - who has worked hard to cultivate a clean cut reputation, which was temporarily sullied by a drink-driving conviction in 2004.

According to the News of the World, his management company Octagon offered a series of deals in bid to stop the newspaper publishing the photograph.

These included signing up their client to write an exclusive column in the build-up to London 2012 and get Phelps' sponsors to advertise in the title.

Spokesman Clifford Bloxham allegedly told them: "It's seeing if something potentially very negative for Michael could turn into something very positive for the News of the World."

Phelps has just returned to training in a bid to continue his medal collection at this summer's World Championships in Rome.

"It hasn't been the easiest week of training," he said. "It has been kind of painful and rough. "In four years I will be hanging my suit up and leading an easy life." 

UPDATED: Octagon, Phelps's management company, have denied offering the News of the World a deal not to publish their picture and stories.

An Octagon spokesperson said: “The characterisation of the conversation between Octagon and News of the World is wrong. They’re a tabloid and we have no intention of getting into a shouting match with a tabloid.”

UPDATED: Picture confirmed and statement released: Swimmer Phelps admits to regrettable behaviour

 

James Toney is the Managing Editor of national press agency Sportsbeat and four-time shortlisted Sports Journalist of the Year.

 

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