Saturday, July 7, 2012

Michael Phelps banned from entering the UK for the 2012 Olympics

UK immigration officials have announced that multi-gold winning US swimmer, Michael Phelps, will not be permitted to enter Britain to compete in the 2012 London Olympics due to his history of drug use.
Phelps hears the news of his UK ban
The Baltimore Bullet has already won a total of 16 medals (14 gold and 2 bronze) from 2 different Olympic games, and was expected to claim more gold at the 2012 London games. That was until the announcement this morning from the UK Border Agency, a division of the Home Office, which stated,
"The United Kingdom Border Agency have denied Mr Michael Phelps of the United States Olympic swimming team an Olympic/Paralympic Games visit visa on the grounds that he/she has in the past has used banned recreational drugs including but not limited to cannabis/opiates and opioids/cocaine/amphetamines.
The above stated person/persons have the right to a formal written statement of denial, and may appeal the decision no sooner than 30 days and within 90 days of this notice."

The banned recreational drugs refer of course to the highly publicized incident back in 2009 where pictures of Phelps using a bong to smoke marijuana were published in a number of newspapers including Rupert Murdoch's now defunct News of the World.

Michael Phelps proves his tremendous lung capacity
Phelps and his agent have so far been unavailable for comment, but the US Olympic Committee have responded to the "no-entry" revelation by releasing this statement:
"We are aware of Michael's past indiscretions and he has already been severely punished by USA Swimming for the bong incident, with a 3 month competitive swimming ban. We are working closely with the British Home Office to find a solution to this minor oversight, and we are confident that Michael will be permitted to enter the UK and compete in the 2012 Olympic swimming events for which he qualified."

This is not the first time that persons with a drug or criminal history have been refused entry into another country. Chris Brown was refused a work visa and entry to the UK on the grounds of his criminal background. He was due to perform at the Michael Jackson Tribute in Cardiff., back in October 2011.

Comedian, Russell Brand was banned from both Japan and Canada because of his criminal and drug related past. And Snoop Dogg has been banned from traveling pretty much anywhere except Amsterdam.

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1 comment :

Ryan Lochte said...

Michael Phelps? More like Michael Failps. I bet he wishes the ban had not been lifted after he got owned in the pool yesterday.

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