Posted on 07/09/2002 7:32:07 AM PDT by dead
Lleyton Hewitt is under fire from anti-smoking groups after being photographed with a cigar in his mouth as he celebrated his Wimbledon triumph.
Pictures of the Wimbledon winner with a Cuban cigar between his teeth at the Champions' Dinner featured in newspapers around Australia.
Hewitt's management today said the 21-year-old was a non-smoker and he had been passed the cigar by friends at the London dinner.
"It's not his, he wasn't smoking at all," a spokeswoman for his management company Octagon said.
"He's definitely not a smoker.
"The camera happened to catch him being a 21-year-old with his friends."
The Queensland Cancer Fund said the world number one had sent a terrible message not only to Australian children but to children around the world by being pictured smoking a cigar.
"We're dealing with very impressionable young people here," the fund's acting executive director Alan Hooper said.
"We're not dealing with adults who are able to make informed choices.
"We're dealing with people who see a sporting hero, someone they admire and look up to and, in most cases, would like to emulate."
Quit Victoria also called on Hewitt to set a better example to young people.
"Lleyton certainly earned the right to celebrate his well-deserved win but it is disappointing to see him posing with a cigar," said Quit Victoria executive director Todd Harper.
With smoking killing 19,000 Australians every year, the Queensland Cancer Fund urged Hewitt to think about his actions.
"People are influenced by good examples and by bad examples," Mr Hooper said.
"The tobacco industry could not have induced Lleyton to endorse their products with a million dollars, he would just not have done it.
"Where now you have this extraordinary irony where a combination of circumstances, probably just a degree of youthful exuberance and such things, have combined to do their dirty work for them."
Hewitt was in Belgium today having a break before heading to the US later this month for a tournament in Los Angeles.
He is not due back in Australia until mid-September after the US Open, where he will be defending champion.
"He's definitely not a smoker."
Oh good x%#@%**% grief. Why backpedal and make excuses to these busybodies? Tell 'em to go straight to hell. If I was him I'd say Hey Kids this cigar is great! just to piss them off more. Screw them. Some of these anti-smoking IDIOTS need to have the crap slapped out of them to put their asses back in their place. They no longer sense any boundaries.
What a crock! I'd say 21 is the perfect age to start being an adult who CAN make choices. The anti's need to get a life.
So true, steve! We have 18 year-olds over in Afghan, yet the anti's are saying that "they aren't old enough to make wise decisions." This burns my a$$.
"People are influenced by good examples and by bad examples," Mr Hooper said.
Take Mr. Hooper, for instance. The best example of neutered-male, free-money grabbing pecksniffery imaginable.
Kids - don't let this happen toYOU!!!
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