I’ve been reading some of the stories about Michael Phelps, the amazing young athlete who won a record setting number of gold medals swimming for the United States at most recent summer Olympic games.
The recent brouhaha over him smoking from a bong strikes me as a bit over the top. Apparently he’s been banned from a national swimming organization for a few months, Wheaties is taking him off their “box”, and I’d imagine there will be more negative fallout.
What seems crazy to me is that here is a young man who overcome some personal and family challenges that many people would readily point to as a reason for failure and achived unimaginable heights. As a result of his ardous training regimen and natural talent, he achives great success in Bejing and is thrust into the international spotlight and, while enjoying his fame and fortune, parties like a rockstar – and who wouldn’t!!!
Yet the media seems bent on doing everything possible to denigrate this young man. In fact, it’s almost like reading about the requirement of the Chinese under Mao to “self-incriminate.” I say boycott those organizations that are trying to shame Michael Phelps!
