Most guys would be embarrassed to find out their Facebook photo, picturing them stark naked with nothing but a giant palm leaf covering their private part, was broadcast across all of Chicago.
But not Northwestern swimmer Matt Grevers.
“The leaf covers up more area than my Speedo does,” said the 6-foot-7 junior.
Grevers’ photo was part of a CBS 2 Chicago report, which aired Oct. 3, called “Be Careful What’s in Your Facebook.” The presentation warns viewers that, though Facebook.com seems safe and inoffensive, there are “- all sorts of embarrassing pictures, groups soliciting others for sex and drugs, even one man who cheerfully decorated his genitals on the website.”
His photo is flashed across the screen with a zoom-in on the palm leaf. It’s meant to be an example of a photo that maybe should have been kept, well, private.
Grevers said he doesn’t buy that advice.
“Google me and they’ll find pictures of me swimming in a Speedo,” he said. “They can go see a swim meet and I’ll be in a size 28 swim suit. In a Speedo you can definitely see definition there of things you don’t want to see.”
The now-infamous picture was taken during a Winter Break training trip in Hawaii during Grevers’ freshman year. He said that the team was running a drill on a black sand beach when he and a teammate stopped for the photo op.
Behind the leaf, he said, he really is wearing a swimsuit.
Grevers, who won the 100 backstroke at the NCAA Championships last year, said he’s received more attention for the photo than he has for his accomplishments in the pool. And instead of deterring him from posting such unsavory photos on the Internet, the CBS report, he said, has only inspired him to be more creative.
“I’m definitely going to do it again this year,” he said. “Maybe I’ll try a handstand with the leaf covering me.”
Reach Becky Plevin
