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It turns out that Michael Phelps, the man who captured eight incredible gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, can also smoke a bong. Wow, amazing! Thankyou News of the World. I feel so much better about myself now that I know an Olympic champion is on the wacky tobaccy.
Great for Phelps isn’t it?
It doesn’t matter how many world records he breaks in the future, someone will bring up the fact that he smoked weed at a party once.
If Phelps smoked weed during a swimming meet, I would agree with it being a news story. The fact he did it out of competition shouldn’t be a problem. It should be in the ‘who cares?’ basket, just like Stephanie Rice partying after her Olympic campaign.
It’s ridiculous celebrity news like this which makes me glad I failed to make it to the elite sporting level – at least in this day and age.
One only has to wind back the clock less than twenty years to remember the exploits of our former champions. David Boon scored a lot of runs and took that hat-trick catch off Shane Warne, but he also drank a half-century worth of beers on the way to England.
So why all of a sudden do athletes have to be role-models?
Being a role model should be like giving charity. It should be something you do naturally and not forced into.
Former tennis player Pat Rafter is naturally a role model, whereas Lleyton Hewitt is not because of their vastly different personalities.
The problem, of course, is that many generous deeds by athletes go unnoticed. It’s only the negative stories which seem to get published, skewing the public’s view.
A great example was when I played junior cricket in Wagga Wagga circa 1999.
The North Sydney Bears were in the city for a trial match at the end of February. They were staying at a Hotel just up from Bolton Park, where my team (South Wagga) was in action.
Rather than sitting back in their hotel room, a few of the players, including Jason Taylor, Michael Buettner, and Gary Larson, decided to come down and watch us play on their own accord without any media in sight.
They cheered so loudly it felt like there were 100 people watching. They signed autographs at the drinks break and chatted to us about cricket and football before retiring back to their hotel.
The team played that night and after the match had a few too many drinks and some of the players got into a fight. Needless to say, this made the headlines.
From memory, there were many angry letters from locals saying how disgraceful their behaviour was. It was a lesson to me in how harsh it is to be in the spotlight.
Yes, you make a lot of money, but there’s every chance your reputation will be damaged, whether it’s justified or not. All because you weren’t perceived as a role-model.
I guess that’s how Andrew Symonds feels right about now?
Michael Phelps photo by Vironevaeh