Phelps To Ponder Future In Wake Of Photo Scandal

Phelps, who has apologised for the incident, said he would discuss his Olympic future with his family and coach Bob Bowman.

Record-setting Olympic champion Michael Phelps is reportedly thinking about skipping the 2012 Games in London after a photo surfaced showing him smoking from a marijuana pipe.

The controversial photograph was reported to have been taken at a November party at the University of South Carolina and was published by British tabloid newspaper News of the World last Sunday.

Phelps, who has apologised for the incident, said he would discuss his Olympic future with his family and coach Bob Bowman.

"This is a decision of mine that I'm not going to make today and I'm not going to make tomorrow," Phelps said during an interview with the Baltimore Sun.

"It's going to require a lot of time and energy and a lot of thinking for myself -- but also talking to Bob and talking to my family and just deciding what I want to do.

"Yeah, there are still goals that I have in the pool, 100 percent. But I'm not going to let anything stand in my way.

"If I decide to walk away, I'll decide to walk away on my own terms. If it's now, if it's four years, who knows. But it is something I need to think about and decide what I want to do."

The 23-year-old Phelps won a record eight gold medals at last year's Beijing Olympics.