Teary Stephanie Rice says 'careless' Twitter anti-gay slur has taught her a 'lesson'

Melbourne (ANI) - Australian swimmer Stephanie Rice broke into tears as she made a public apology for the homophobic slur she had made on Twitter.

Rice, 22, broke down twice at a press conference she called in Sydney on September 8, pleading for forgiveness over what she labelled "thoughtless and careless" comments.

The swimmer had tweeted, "Suck on that f--gots!" following the Wallabies' Tri-Nations weekend win over the Springboks.

She deleted the post and apologised via the social networking site but also opted to offer a public apology.

"I owe it to those who I have offended to publicly say, I am sorry. It is not me to give offence to other people no matter who they are," the Courier Mail quoted her as saying.

"I am not a person who judges others or speaks in a way that hurts others.

"My comments were thoughtless and careless but I can assure you when I made those comments on Twitter I never intended to offend anybody.

"I've learned a lot in the last couple of days. I've learned I must think before I speak and this has been a very important lesson.

"I've also learned that some things you say can mean more to others than they do to you.

"I felt I've let a lot of people down. I just want people to know how sorry I am. I'm just here to gain people's trust back and show how out of character it was," she added.