USA Swimming suspends Phelps for 3 months

By Paul NEWBERRY

SWIMMING: ATLANTA February 7, 2009: Michael Phelps was suspended from competition for three months by USA Swimming on Thursday, the latest fallout from a photo of the Olympic great with a marijuana pipe.

USA Swimming also cut off its financial support to Phelps for the same three-month period.

"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," the federation said in a statement. "Michael has voluntarily accepted this reprimand and has committed to earn back our trust." Phelps won a record eight gold medals in Beijing and returned to America as one of the world's most acclaimed athletes. Now he's enduring a wave of bad news in the wake of the photo, published on Sunday by the British tabloid News of the World.