Comparing Michael Phelps’ and Naoya Tomita’s Suspensions (Poll of the Week Video)

PHOENIX, Arizona, October 8. THE news surrounding Michael Phelps’ DUI arrest made major headlines around the world, as the man deemed the greatest swimmer in history faced major punishment for excessive speeding and driving under the influence of alcohol. Last week, we posted a poll on swimmingworld.com asking you what type of punishment USA Swimming should give Phelps for the DUI. USA Swimming came out with their decision this past Monday, cutting off his national team funding, suspending him from competition for six months and taking him off the world championship team.


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As of the moment USA Swimming made that announcement, 60 percent of people who voted in the poll believed Phelps should get some kind of punishment from USA Swimming. Eleven percent said he should only be suspended from competition. Sixteen percent said stop all financial compensation, while 33 percent said USA Swimming should suspend him from competition and stop financial compensation.

The remaining 40 percent of voters said Phelps should not get any punishment from USA Swimming. People on social media commented that whatever punishment he gets from the courts is enough for Phelps, and that USA Swimming shouldn’t get involved in something that happened away from competition.

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, the Japanese swimming federation is dealing with one of their top swimmers facing punishment for a criminal act. Naoya Tomita was caught stealing a professional photographer’s camera from the pool deck at the Asian Games, and as a results was kicked off the team. Later, he was ordered to pay about 1,000 US dollars as a fine and yesterday the Japanese swimming federation suspended him for 17 months. That takes him all the way up to March 31, 2016, two weeks before the Japanese Olympic Trials. We wanted to know how harsh you think Tomita’s suspension is, relative to the suspension Phelps was handed for his DUI. Is it not harsh enough, just right or too harsh? Our poll is available on swimmingworld.com, so go there to place your vote. We’ll let you know the final results on our next show.

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Keith Benjamin
Keith Benjamin
9 years ago

Naoya Tomita was caught stealing a professional photographer’s camera from the pool deck at the Asian Games. This is crime was committed at a competition. It hurt the image of the team and the sport directly and should be more sever.

YES!
YES!
9 years ago

Swimming World, you have made the national team swimmers proud. Thank you for this. Great point. And again, Very Appropriate of USA Swimming.

Hillerie Denning
Hillerie Denning
9 years ago

I agree with Keith Benjamin’s comment except that “severe” is spelled like this! I think it is ludicrous that top world athletes are put on a “perfect hero” pedestal. They are human just like everyone else and just because one is the best swimmer in the world does not mean one is the smartest person in the world, or possess maturity and good judgment.

anonymous
anonymous
9 years ago

Hillerie,
Thank you for your logical and fair comment. So many of the comments about Tomita have been incredibly nasty and untrue. He is a wonderful and generous friend and a really fun person to be around. But I and his other friends know he is like a five year old kid in both the good and bad ways. Most people seem to dehumanize him in their assessment of the situation. Thank you for acknowledging his humanity.

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