Olympic gold medalist swimmer Stephanie Rice condemned for homophobic tweet
Stephanie Rice shows off her gold medal.
BRISBANE, Australia – One of the most celebrated Olympic swimmers in Australian history is under fire for tweeting a homophobic slur.
Stephanie Rice won three gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing in the 200 meter IM, 400 meter IM and 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay – all in world record times.
In 2009, Rice, 22, was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia.
On Saturday night, Rice tweeted a homophobic slur after a game. It said, “Suck on that f**gots.”
The gay community in Australia and beyond immediately reacted to Rice’s tweet.
Ian Roberts, who is a former rugby player who is gay, told the Herald Sun: “She is an idiot and anyone who continues to endorse her as an athlete is an idiot as well. … And I say that with a very sad tone in my voice. What a fool. And if her sponsors don’t do something about it, they’re fools as well.”
As soon as she figured out there was an outcry about her Twitter message, Rice quickly deleted the tweet and issued a statement of regret: “I did not mean to cause offense and I apologize. I have deleted it from the site.”
Reports out of Australia say that Rice has lost a gig as spokeswoman for Jaguar as a result of her boorish behavior.
