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By James Toney, Managing Editor
STICK a microphone under their nose and the media training kicks in - you can almost hear them thinking 'journalists, don't trust them, they'll spin whatever you say into whatever they want'.
NICE WHEELS: Stephanie Rice will lose her car - and Jaguar sponsorship - after her sponsors were left fuming after she labelled the Springbok rugby team 'faggots' on her Twitter account
Sometimes you can't blame athletes for being guarded but you have to laugh when they then go and shoot themselves in the foot on the internet. Although it could be worse, they could be Leslie Grantham.
Reporters who once had to work the phones and sweat their contacts for a story, can now just turn on their laptops and ride the information superhighway to a nice splash.
Teenage tennis players David Rice and Naomi Broady famously had their funding withdrawn after some lewd comments and photos on the Bebo social networking site.
Broady said she hated 'hangovers after a good nite owt [sic]' while Rice said he was happiest when 'iv the boyz partyin and chillin [sic]'. He added: "you can't beat Watford 4 a nyt out [sic]'.
Darren Bent used Twitter to launch what we in the trade like to call a 'foul-mouthed rant' while Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes announced he'd been dropped for an Ashes test a little earlier than his coach would have liked to have informed his opposite number.
Kevin Pietersen and Dimitri Mascarenhas have only recently been fined for their respective Twitter outbursts as England cricketers also struggle to adapt to social media.
And now Australia's triple Olympic gold medallist swimmer Stephanie Rice has been dropped by sponsors Jaguar after posting a homophobic remark - now removed -on her twitter site.
"Suck on that faggots!" she said after Australia's win over South Africa's in last weekend's Tri-Nations thriller.
Eighteen characters bashed out on her Blackberry that meant she had to hand back her brand new XF sports car.
But unfortunately not everyone is quite so controversial.
Take this from Olympic modern pentathlon silver medallist Heather Fell - "A jog to the beach and just enough time for a dip in the sea before my flight home."
Or this from world champion swimmer Liam Tancock - "Had a good day with the lads, now playing Some EA Games - FIFA World Cup and Tiger Woods 11"
Or bad news from Martyn Rooney - "Back to Lboro and someone's broken my wall, bad times"
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