Being Michael Phelps‘ arm candy is a rough job. Back in December, former Phelps flame Caroline “Caz” Pal claimed she was being “victimized by the media” when topless photos of her surfaced across the internet (including here at SPORTSbyBROOKS).

Now, recent Phelps companion and Miss California 2009 Carrie Prejean, who first made waves with her decidedly traditonal views on marriage, is coming under fire for some naughty photos of her own (after the jump, of course).

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One of the best parts of any Olympics is seeing the athletes from the smaller countries, for whom the games represents much more than a shot at a sponsorship deal. We’re always hearing about so-and-so winning so-and-so’s first ever medal, and going home to a hero’s welcome in his new gold-plated hovermansion.

Then there’s Rasul Boqiev, Tajikistan’s first ever Olympic medalist. He had to leave the country to find work. And you thought our economy was in trouble.

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Home Depot has offered nearly 600 Olympians the opportunity to work part-time and train full-time with full-time benefits since 1992.  However, they apparently haven’t received their money’s worth for the investment, so the not-quite-free ride’s over as the program will end soon.

(Olympian Ronda Rousey and Paralympian Jeff Skiba participated in the program in 2008)

Olympians currently employed by Home Depot will have the option to work part-time and get paid for it, apply for full-time jobs and work full-time, or walk away by March 2.
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Sure, Americans are superficial, but in terms of national sensitivity, no country is more image-conscious than China, and nowhere was it more evident than the 2008 Olympics. Their ceremonies were–to put it mildly–extravagant and the precision and execution of the games themselves were testaments to a discipline nonpareil.

(Quick, China, cover your eyes and ears! She’s about to express an opinion!)

But there are significant (potential) sources of embarrassment for China, not the least of which include human rights concerns, Tibet, Darfur, and I’ll just stop now before they treat SbB like they did Jennie Finch and a handful of her fellow Olympians. USA TODAY reported today that before the Olympics, China put together a list of “potential troublemakers” on the American squad and asked American officials to squelch any possible demonstrations. Touchy much? Read more…

You probably remember Leryn Franco. She is the former Miss Paraguay who also happens to be a member of the Paraguayan Olympic team as a javelin thrower in both the 2004 and 2008 Games. In other words, she’s incredibly hot and can kill you from over 50 yards away, and there’s just something incredibly sexy about that. You know what else is incredibly sexy? Franco’s breast being exposed while she walked a runway at a fashion show over the weekend.

The photos are courtesy of LESS CLOTHES, and I’d like to let the fellas over there know that they are indeed doing the Lord’s work. More photos after the jump.

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If you ever actually look through the schedule for the Olympics, you’ll notice a lot of sports that just don’t seem very, well, sporty. The Steeplechase. Power-Walking. Curling. And now someone wants to introduce another activity onto the world stage via the Olympics: pole dancing.

At the European pole dancing championships held last night - why is it we always hear about these events after the fact - one of the contestants began wondering aloud why this isn’t an Olympic sport yet. After all, they’re wearing the same skimpy outfits as gymnasts, and sometimes use even more muscle control.

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Chinese basketball player Sun Yue has often been called the “Chinese Magic Johnson” because, uh, well, I guess because he’s tall and is good at basketball. But Yue, who recently signed with the Lakers, is squashing that name and bringing his own to the table: Monkey King.

Oddly, Sun’s reason for rejecting the “Magic” moniker is not because he feels that he can’t live up to the name — it’s because he’s specifically not going to pattern his game after the Laker great. The Monkey King imitates no one.

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What Olympian isn’t really proud of winning a medal? Most show it off proudly on the podium and then maybe walk around with it for a couple of days when they get home, at which time they put it in, like, a display case or something, and move on to the next phase of their life.

But that’s not how Alicia Sacramone rolls. While fellow gymnast Nastia Liukin was hanging out with Maria Sharapova at New York runway shows last week sans-medals (and she does have a couple of gold ones), Sacramone was toting her team silver around with her at Fashion Week, making sure everyone saw it whether they wanted to or not. Now, it appears she’s carrying it around in her purse to dinner in L.A.

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Fresh off her star-making turn in the Beijing Olympics, 18-year-old Nastia Liukin is celebrating like a champion — by hanging out with hot women and making a guest appearance on a CW show. Liukin was spotted attending a runway show at New York’s Bryant Park with injured tennis star Maria Sharapova, and the two were reportedly getting along quite well.

Liukin looked right at home in the high-fashion world with a dress that matched her gold medals (more photos after the jump).

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As everyone knows, the true reason behind waking up for all of those early morning practices leading up to Beijing isn’t the promotional deals, or the SNL-hosting gigs, or just the overall sense that you’re making your country proud. It’s the ladies. So it’s no shocker to see America’s Champion Michael Phelps already partaking in the spoils of international conquest:

The photos come from Neel Shah, a writer over at RADAR, who was in Vegas covering a story when he happened upon Phelps in the Palms Casino. There, he caught the 14-time-gold medalist “massively skeeving on girls at the Playboy Club”:

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