Michael Phelps: Yet Another Minuscule Mistake Blown Out of Proportion by Society

Olympic athletes were at one time the essence of the word "amateur".

Many years ago, an Olympic athlete could not, in any way or form, financially benefit from their ability, otherwise they would automatically relinquish their amateur status and render themselves ineligible for the Olympic Games. 

However, the modern day Olympic Games contain professional athletes that are indeed allowed to benefit financially from their performance at the Olympics.

Professional basketball players, baseball players, etc. all now participate in the Olympic games. 

Basketball and baseball players who are good enough will make a substantial amount of money through their regular salaries.  

However, an Olympic swimmer has one and only one way of making any significant amount of money outside of the Olympics; that being through lucrative endorsement deals.

Michael Phelps won 10 gold medals at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, China, making him technically the greatest Olympic athlete of all-time.

Phelps appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated and just about every other magazine cover in the developed world.

He appeared on the Letterman Show, The Tonight Show, and various other popular late night talk shows.

Phelps was the perfect definition of the stereotypical "Golden Boy", and that, needless to say, drew the attention of companies the world over looking to pay Phelps big-time money to endorse their products and services.

In recent months, Phelps probably saw his bank account ticking upwards as fast as the stock market has been collapsing.

Phelps has not been training and has been living the good life by traveling, hanging out on beautiful beaches, and doing what any 23-year-old multi-millionaire would be doing.

Oh, yeah, and he also happened to smoke marijuana at a party.

While at a party in South Carolina, Phelps was photographed smoking marijuana out of a bong. This picture was then sold to a British tabloid for what one could only imagine to be for significant amount of money.

Needless to say, outrage ensued around the world when the picture of Phelps smoking a bong surfaced.

As would be expected in this day and age of extreme conservatism, anyone and everyone bashed Phelps, calling him a terrible role model and an embarrassment to America, etc.

The fact of the matter is that Michael Phelps is a 23-year-old kid who made a mistake that I would venture to say 90 percent of the population has made at one time or another.

When you made a similar mistake, did you think of yourself as an embarrassment to America?

I doubt it.

Sure, Phelps is in the public eye and really is a role model to kids around the world, so more is expected of him.

But to expect perfection from a 23-year-old, new millionaire is naive in every sense of the word.

Now, Phelps’ minuscule mistake could cost him tens of millions of dollars in lost sponsorship deals and the termination of his current sponsorship contracts.

According to 60 Minutes, Phelps was well on his way to earning upwards of $100 million in endorsement and sponsorship earnings before his current celebrity light would go dim.

Now, Phelps might see a fraction of that money that he trained 15 hours per day for years and years to have the opportunity to earn, all because of yet another minuscule mistake that has been blown way out of proportion by the media and general public.

I suppose the biblical phrase, “Let he who has never sinned through the first stone” is all but extinct in today’s society.