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?Michael Phelps swims during his heat in the men's 200m butterfly at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in Omaha, Nebraska in this July 1, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) |
Fourteen-time Olympic champion Michael Phelps got his first suspension from competition for three months by USA Swimming in Colorado Springs on Thursday.
"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," USA Swimming said in a statement.
The swimming federation also withdrew its financial support to Phelps for the same three-month period, effective on Thursday.
"Michael has voluntarily accepted this reprimand and has committed to earn back our trust," added the federation.
The Olympic great acknowledged "regrettable" behavior and "bad judgment" on Sunday after a photo in a British newspaper showed him inhaling from a marijuana pipe.
"This was stupid, and I know this won't happen again," Phelps told The Baltimore Sun on Wednesday when asked if he regularly smokes marijuana.
The 23-year-old Phelpls has resumed training days ago in Baltimore, his hometown.
Now he has to change his plan returning to competitive swimming because of the suspension. He had been planning to compete in early March at a Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.
The 2009 world swimming championships is to be held in Rome in July, two months after Phelps become free in early May.
The Olympic super swimmer won eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympic Games last summer, not only refreshing his compatriot MarkSpitz's record of taking seven golds in one Olympic Games (Munich 1972), but also setting the total record of gold taking by a single person (14) in the Olympic history.
(Xinhua News Agency Feburary 6, 2009)
