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December 2, 2008 8:47:28 PM CST



Phelps Jittery Over SNL Appearance

Posted Sep 13, 08 5:01 PM CDT in Sports Arts & Living 

(Newser) – Winning gold medals was easy, but appearing on Saturday Night Live? “Oh gosh, this is going to be tough,” Michael Phelps told Jay Leno this week. Phelps is enjoying a burst of post-Olympic celebrity, the Baltimore Sun reports, but public speaking is a new sport for the 23-year-old. Phelps says he battled a major bout of nerves before the MTV video music awards, but he’s calmer about appearing on SNL tonight.

Lorne Michaels isn’t worried about Phelps’ performance. “He's not suddenly going to be a professional sketch player,” said the SNL honcho, “but he'll do just fine.” Whether or not Phelps parlays his 15 minutes into a solid pitchman career remains to be seen. “If he puts his heart into his message the way he did in his swimming,” one speech coach said, “the sky is the limit.”

Source Baltimore Sun

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In this image released by Disney, Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps waves to the crowd, Friday, Aug. 29, 2008, during a parade at the Magic Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.   (AP Photo/Disney, David Roark)
In this Sept. 7, 2008 file photo, Michael Phelps arrives at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards held at Paramount Pictures Studio Lot in Los Angeles.   (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
In this image provided Kellogg Co., a prototype of a box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes with U.S. swimming star Michael Phelps is seen.   (AP Photo)
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Michael Phelps on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.   (Anusky6)

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Olympic champions like Michael Phelps must realize that in order to be as successful in speaking, they need to put in the same amount of training that they do for their sports. - Dan Weedin, speech coach

Michael is a very 'in' commodity right now, and that 'in-ness' tends to leave fairly quickly. - Matt Eventoff, speech trainer

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