Michael Phelps is in Trouble for a Louis Vuitton Photo Shoot

Personally, I don’t think this is nearly as severe as the time he was caught smoking pot.

Michael Phelps recently did a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz for Louis Vuitton, and last week the photos leaked onto the internet.  The reason this is such a big deal is because it violates the International Olympic Committee’s Rule 40, which says that an athlete participating in the Olympics can’t promote any non-Olympic sponsors from July 18-August 15th.

The consequences of that rule are stated here: “a competitor or a team may lose the benefit of any ranking obtained in relation to other events at the Olympic Games at which he or it was disqualified or excluded; in such case the medals and diplomas won by him or it shall be returned to the IOC.”  Which basically in a nutshell, Michael could potentially be stripped of his metals that he earned.

Personally, I highly doubt they would strip him of his record earning medals.  Mainly because I don’t believe it is his fault, and I think they will take that into account.   Louis Vuitton claims they didn’t release the photos, and Michael Phelps claims the same thing.  But I think neither one did it, and it’s an outside party/person who just doesn’t respect others property and decided to leak them for their own benefit.   That is unless Louis Vuitton just has a personal vendetta against Michael, which I find unlikely as well.

According to the article I read on Yahoo the campaign was not supposed to begin until August 16th, so it would follow the rules set by the International Olympic Committee.  Well apparently somebody decided to leak the photos on the second Tuesday of the Olympics, and I don’t think that’s very nice.