Olympic Swimmer Lauren Perdue Turns Down LeBron James Dinner Invite, Citing 'Curfew' [PHOTO]

By Howard Koplowitz | August 01 2012 12:03 PM

Olympic swimmer Lauren Perdue helped put the U.S. in position to medal in the women's 200 meter freestyle relay at the 2012 London Games, but it's not the North Carolina native's swimming skills that is responsible for the attention she's been getting.

Twitter/@LoPerdue

Olympic swimmer Lauren Perdue helped put the U.S. in position to medal in the women's 200 meter freestyle relay at the 2012 London Games, but it's not the North Carolina native's swimming skills that is responsible for the attention she's been getting.

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Perdue turned down an invitation to dine with LeBron James when the Miami Heat superstar bumped into the 21-year-old swimmer in London's Olympic Village. She tweeted a photo of her and James on her Instagram account July 26.

James is married, and there's no reason to believe that the dinner invite was nothing more than a friendly gesture on King James' part.

"The [U.S.] basketball players were nice enough to kind of come out and meet the swimmers and take pictures," Perdue said of the meeting, according to Scott Fowler, sports columnist for The Charlotte Observer.

The 21-year-old swimming star at the University of Virginia said King James invited her to dinner, but she turned down the offer.

"He was kind of joking but he was basically like, 'Would you like to come eat with me at the dining hall?' And I said, 'Um, I'm sorry, I have a curfew. So I turned that one down, yeah," Perdue said.

Perdue got the U.S. women started in the 200 meter freestyle relay, helping the swimmers win their heat early Wednesday morning with a time of 7:50.75.

Perdue, from Greenville, N.C., is one of the new Olympic faces of the 2012 London Games. The 21-year-old is active on Twitter and Instagram, routinely posting updates, offering congratulations to her fellow Olympians and sharing photos of her Olympic journey.

She has nearly 5,000 Twitter followers and more than 722 Instagram followers. You can check out Lauren Perdue's Twitter account here and follow her on Instagram, where her handle is LoPerdue.