London 2012: Michael Phelps Will Retire the Greatest Olympian Ever

Four years ago, Michael Phelps electrified the sporting world by dominating at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing by winning eight gold medals. He reached the absolute pinnacle of his craft; he'd cemented his place as the greatest to ever swim. 

He had nowhere to go but down.

Pictures surfaced of him with a marijuana pipe on the internet, as he got bored, lazy, and content. He admitted that he "literally did nothing" after he broke the all-time record previously held by Mark Spitz. His friends told him that he "got fat" and that he needed to start working out again.

These are details of his life post-2008 that are now being revisited and dissected in the wake of his failure to medal at one of his signature events, the 400-meter individual medley. People were swift to jump on the bandwagon of the winner, and Phelps' friend and teammate, Ryan Lochte. 

I'm not so sure how the criticism is warranted, after just one event. Here's a guy with the most stellar track record of all-time. Perhaps the criticism is rooted in the general American public's penchant for rooting against Goliath.

After all, they're not being unpatriotic if they simply end up supporting Lochte, someone who now embodied what Phelps used to be: tirelessly hard-working and someone who trained like every stroke was his last. A society that lauded hard work, dedication, and vilified complacency and laziness was all too ready to anoint the new golden boy not just for USA swimming, but all of our Olympians.

And then Lochte proved he was human by choking away the lead in the freestyle relay, while Phelps swam his part in just 47.15 seconds, the fastest of any Yank. 

The arc of all talented, ostensibly superhuman athletes involves a rise to the top, and a crescendo downward after reaching that peak. 

Although Phelps did get lazy, it's hard to believe somebody who hates losing as much as him and trained as hard as he did lacked any foresight whatsoever as to what would happen after he reached the top. He probably saw some sort of downturn, like a Mike Tyson losing to Buster Douglas, or Michael Jordan retiring to play baseball. 

Michael Phelps wanted to change the sport of swimming. He already did that four years ago; swimming's popularity has skyrocketed in America since then. He will retire the greatest Olympian athlete ever, and we all need to stop chastising him every time he does something that isn't perfect.