Stephanie Rice in the spotlight after racy picture

It appears the lure of social networking is just too much for Australia Olympic swimmer Stephanie Rice.

24-year-old Rice, who won three gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games, has posted a revealing picture wearing only a ‘birthday suit’.

Rice posted the picture via twitter, and thanked her friend Ellie Gonsalves for the bikini.

While there were originally fears that the picture may lead to a conflict of interest with her sponsors, her management have denied this to be the case.

It is not the first time Rice has posted a revealing self-portrait on social media – in 2008 she donned a policewoman’s costume and posted it to Facebook.

And more recently her red cozzi, post-break-up portrait posted in Twitter soon after her split from Wallaby Quade Cooper also caused a stir.