From Reason.com, What Michael Phelps Should Have Said. The article is what I would like to have said, only Radley Balko’s said it better.
I’m not given to having sporting heroes, but being a swimmer, if I have one, it’s Michael Phelps. And he’s still a hero, despite the best efforts of the News of the World.
I for one am not in the slightest bit ‘disappointed’ in him for the bong incident (USA Swimming have suspended him for 3 months to “send a strong message to Michael because he disappointed so many people”). How could you be disappointed in someone who has already achieved so much, they are out of anyone’s league to start with. Whose business is it anyway? And frankly, if you can win 8 gold medals, and smoke cannabis, you should probably get a 9th.
He’s 23. He’s an international hero, not for clean living, but for swimming. Leave him alone. Kellogg’s have dropped him as a sponsor after February. Probably a good thing. I’d be more disappointed if he continued to mislead kids into thinking that it was cornflakes that contributed to his success. If this stops people eating cornflakes, good.
