Homophobic Remarks Force End of Jaguar Sponsorship for Australian Swimmer

by Noah Joseph (RSS feed)
Sep 14th 2010 at 7:01PM

Controversy has reared its ugly head Down Under as Jaguar has terminated its sponsorship deal with an Olympic gold-medalist over disparaging remarks made online. The athlete in question, Stephanie Rice, reportedly derided rival South African rugby team the Springboks as "faggots" after their defeat at the hands of the Australian Wallabies, one of whose players she is reportedly romantically involved with.

The remarks were made via popular social media portal Twitter, and were followed by a tearful apology made at a televised press conference. Jaguar Australia, however, evidently felt the triple-gold-medal-winning swimmer was no longer suitable to represent their brand, ending their relationship and forcing Rice to return the Jaguar XF sedan she'd been driving since earlier this year.

Tags: australia, homophobic, jaguar, jaguar australia, jaguar xf, rugby, stephanie rice