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Its hard to buy Phelps’ sincerity when he looks borderline stoned in this video:
What were you doing last week?
Michael Phelps, golden boy in more ways than one:
The business decisions Phelps makes over the next two years — if not the next two weeks — will be critical. Appearances and endorsement possibilities will be flying from every direction, and he and his longtime agent, Peter Carlisle of Octagon, will have to be careful about their decisions.
Entering the Beijing Games, Phelps was reportedly earning an estimated $5 million annually from corporate endorsements, with deals from companies like AT&T, Visa, PowerBar, Omega and Speedo. Now that he’s won eight gold medals, breaking Mark Spitz’s 36-year-old record of seven in one Olympic Games, many in the sports marketing industry believe Phelps’ corporate income could set new records.
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Octagon’s Carlisle told The Wall Street Journal on Monday that he expects Phelps’ current annual earnings to at least double.
“What is the value of eight golds in Beijing before a prime-time audience in the U.S?” Carlisle told the newspaper. “I’d say $100 million over the course of his lifetime.”
Speedo has already paid him a $1 million bonus for breaking Spitz’s record. Just as records can be broken in the pool, so can contracts on land. According to The Wall Street Journal on Monday, Phelps’ worth to Nike could be $40 million.
First she strips for Playboy, and now for PETA? I wonder whats next for Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard…
Says Amanda:
“To see animals … slaughtered to be worn as fashion is awful to me, so I’m definitely against wearing fur,” said Beard in a statement released by PETA.
So does she have any regrets about posing nude?
“No. I’d much rather go naked than ever put a dead animal on my body,” Beard said.
Would you wear this?
The Speedo LZR Racer swimsuit is making such a splash in the pool that U.S. head coach Mark Schubert believes every record in the sport could fall at the Beijing Olympics.
Since the suit was unveiled in February, 19 long-course world records have been set and four short-course marks. The new Speedo suit has been worn in all but one of the 23 records.
At this point in 2004 — the last Olympic year — five world records had been set.
Swimming’s world governing body decided last weekend not to ban the new high-tech suit, despite claims of buoyancy and “technological doping” by some critics.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see every world record broken at the games, and hopefully we’ll get a big percentage of those,” said Schubert, one of the most outspoken supporters of the new swimsuit.
Jessica Hardy of the United States became the latest record-holder in the women’s 50-meter breaststroke at the short-course world championships on Thursday.
Time Warner takes a page from the book of “give people what they want”
Enter SI Vault. If you are wondering what SI Vault is, as the name would imply, it’s 54 years of Sports Illustraded’s covers, images, stories and much more. If an image is worth a thousand words, what would 54 years’ worth of images be worth?
Here’s a story dating back to 1992, for example, on Christian Laettner and Duke. Hmm… Laettner? Duke? Pardon the shameless plug, but enjoy WatchMojo.com’s classic college programming:
Duke in Top College Programs:
And Laettner in Top College Careers:
All right, enough shameless promotion, now go and enjoy 54 years of SI at SI Vault.
Taiwan and China have been debating about the road to be taken by the 2008 Olympic Torch for five months, due to an argument about whether or not Taiwan is in actuality, property of China.
Alas, the Olympic International Committee has announced the fate of the torch’s route for the following year - it will not, in fact, be passing through what China calls, “Chinese Taipei.”
“ TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - The International Olympic Committee said Friday that negotiations between Taiwan and China on the torch relay route for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games are at a dead end, and the torch will not be coming to Taiwan. The announcement ends a five-month saga that began when Taiwan turned down a proposal by the Beijing Organizing Committee to place the island next to the Chinese territory of Hong Kong on the prestigious relay route.
Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949. Beijing claims the island as its own, and works hard to deny it any trappings of sovereignty.
The Taiwanese government of President Chen Shui-bian tries just as hard to emphasize its separateness, and makes no secret of its eventual goal of formal independence.
In rejecting the torch route, Taiwan officials said the Taiwan-Hong Kong contiguity made the island appear to be a part of China, despite their separate status. It said it would only participate when China stopped “downgrad(ing) Taiwanese sovereignty.” “
Read the complete article for all details.
From ESPN: Amanda Beard’s Playboy debut may harm her status as a role model to young girls.
Hmm… has ESPN seen today’s young girls? They look like a bunch of skanks in a Gone Girls Wild video.
Read more here.
Michael Phelps became the first man in history to go under 1 minute, 44 seconds in the 200-meter freestyle at the world championships, breaking Ian Thorpe’s revered world record on the home turf of the retired star.
“That was probably the single most incredible record in the books,” American backstroker Aaron Peirsol said. “He put it to rest.”
Read more.
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