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Rice loses endorsement deal after Twitter slur
Source: Agencies |
September 8, 2010, Wednesday
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TRIPLE Olympic swimming gold medalist Stephanie Rice has lost an endorsement contract with luxury carmaker Jaguar over a homophobic slur she made on Twitter.
She tweeted the derogatory remark after Australia's last-minute win over South Africa in a rugby union test match at Bloemfontein on Saturday.
Rice, 22, tweeted "Suck on that f--gots".
Rice, who reportedly is dating Australia flyhalf Quade Cooper, later deleted the tweet and apologized, saying she didn't mean to cause offense.
"We have terminated our agreement with her," Jaguar spokesman Mark Eedle said.
"It's to do with how we want to associate our brand and unfortunately this ... is not an association we want to have going forward."
Rice, who won three gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, has other endorsement deals with an underwear and a swimwear brand.
The Australian swimmer was the second high-profile athlete in as many days to be sanctioned over comments made on Twitter.
In England, cricketer Kevin Pietersen was fined on Monday for making a profane comment on Twitter after discovering he had been dropped by his country for the first time.
Pietersen fined
The England and Wales Cricket Board fined Pietersen after he admitted to two charges at a disciplinary hearing at Lord's. The batsman apologized to the ECB and the England team management.
"The hearing considered his comments to be prejudicial to the interests of Team England and ECB and a significant breach of the England player conditions of employment," the ECB said. "He has been fined an undisclosed sum."
England under-19 captain Azeem Rafiq was disciplined for swearing on the site in July and former England allrounder Dimitri Mascarenhas did likewise on Sunday when he aimed barbed comments at England national selector Geoff Miller.
Mascarenhas was fined 1,000 pounds (US$1,540) by county side Hampshire on Monday.
England bowler Stuart Broad said that players know they will attract attention with their comments, especially if they are opinionated.
"You go on Twitter to put yourself out there, get in the public domain and let your voice be heard," Broad said. "But the players are aware of the responsibilities you have. If you write something controversial, you know it's going to make headlines."
Australia opener batsman Phillip Hughes upset team management on last year's Ashes tour of England when he announced that he had been dropped before the third test at Edgbaston.
Captain Ricky Ponting has said that Cricket Australia encourages its players to use social networking tools to help promote the game to a younger audience. But the drawback is that players can pursue unsavory themes.
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