Rice in tears over Bok slur
Wed, 08 Sep 2010 10:41
Australian gold medal winner Stephanie Rice. (c) Getty
Triple Olympic swimming gold medalist Stephanie Rice has made a tearful apology for a homophobic slur she posted against the Springboks on Twitter at the weekend.
Rice twice broke down in tears at a news conference she called Wednesday in Sydney, where she asked for forgiveness for her "thoughtless and careless" comment.
The 22-year-old Rice tweeted the derogatory remark after Australia's 41-39 last-minute win over South Africa in a Tri-Nations Test match in Bloemfontein.
Rice, who reportedly is dating Australia flyhalf Quade Cooper, later deleted the tweet and apologized, saying she didn't mean to cause offense.
"Suck on that f**gots", Rice tweeted, adding: "Probs the best game I've ever seen!! Well done boys."
Despite her latest apology, the fall-out the remark has cost her an endorsement contract with luxury carmaker.
"We have terminated our agreement with her," Jaguar spokesman Mark Eedle said in comments reported by the Australian Associated Press.
"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 has other endorsement deals with an underwear brand, a swimwear brand and with telco.
SAPA-AP
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