Hey ther e, sports fans! It looks like the Golden Boy of the Olympics, swimmer Michael Phelps, has been partying a bit too hard lately. A picture of the 14-time Olympic gold medal champ made the headlines of a recent issue of the UK’s “News of the World”. Unfortunately for Phelps, this was not positive publicity.
The reporters had somehow snagged a picture of the 14-time Olympic gold medal champ taking a huge marijuana hit from a bong. The photo was snapped at a party at the University of South Carolina, where Phelps was apparently visiting a female student who he was secretly dating. At least it’s an improvement from the Las Vegas “cocktail waitress”!
One partygoer tattled to the paparazzi that “you could tell Michael had smoked before. He grabbed the bong and a lighter and knew exactly what to do. He looked just as natural with a bong in his hands as he does swimming in the pool.” We wonder how much money this bozo was paid to potentially ruin the Golden Boy’s swimming career. If Phelps is trying to keep his friends close and his enemies closer, he’s going about it in the wrong way.
This unfortunate picture had the potential to cost Phelps a lot more than just his reputation. Not only could he have lost millions of dollars in corporate sponsors, but he might have become ineligible to compete in the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The Olympic committee just passed a law that prohibited athletes who are caught with drugs from competing for four years.
When Phelps’ attorneys caught wind that News of the World was going to publish the picture, they were rightfully scared out of their minds. Among other things, they offered the paper advertising money from Phelps’ corporate sponsors AND promised that the swimmer would be a guest columnist for the paper for three years. For the sake of all you people out there who cherish the written word, we’re just glad that they didn’t take the attorneys up on their offer.
Fortunately for Phelps, he was able to walk away from the incident with his money (though not his dignity) intact. He promptly issued an apology, stating that “I engaged in behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment. I'm 23 years old and despite the successes I've had in the pool, I acted in a youthful and inappropriate way, not in a manner people have come to expect from me.”
Speedo and Omega, two of Phelps’ most important sponsors, took this apology and ran with it. Not wanting to lose out on his future success in 2012, they will continue to support Phelps’ career. However, his other corporate sponsors (including Visa Inc., Subway, and Kellogg Co.) aren’t talking yet. As far as actually being able to compete in the Olympics goes, Phelps is only held to their drug standards during competition. So it looks like he’s still on for 2012, unless he messes up again.
Phelps has a history of regrettable behavior. Following the Athens Games in 2004, a then-underage Phelps was arrested for drunk driving. After pleading guilty, he pledged to never make the same mistake again. Based on repeated behavior patterns, we’re just going to assume that we haven’t seen the last of Michael Phelps’ hard-partying ways. So party on, player!
