Olympic great Michael Phelps acknowledged “regrettable” behavior and “bad judgment” after a photo in a British newspaper Sunday showed him holding what appears to be a marijuana pipe.
The U.S. Olympic Committee said it was “disappointed in the behavior recently exhibited by Michael Phelps,” who was selected the group’s sportsman of the year. He also was honored as AP male athlete of the year, and his feat in Beijing — breaking Mark Spitz’s 36-year-old record for most gold medals in an Olympics — was chosen as the top story of 2008.
“Michael is a role model, and he is well aware of the responsibilities and accountability that come with setting a positive example for others, particularly young people,” the USOC said in a statement. “In this instance, regrettably, he failed to fulfill those responsibilities.”
This isn’t the first embarrassing episode for Phelps after an Olympic triumph. In 2004, a few months removed from winning six gold and two bronze medals in Athens, the swimmer was arrested on a drunken driving charge at age 19. He pleaded guilty and apologized for the mistake.
A few weeks ago , I shared that all of us have a GAP--that many times there is a discrepancy between who we are known for and who we really are.
What we need is to be known by someone.
What we need is to be known by a group of people who know us for who we really are and love us too much to leave us that way .
That is the only way we can successfully deal with the GAP between what we are known for and who we really are.
I believe that Michael will continue to struggle and fail to fulfill his responsibilities, even though his desire is to be a role model, unless he gets in to true community with a group of people who really know him and are able to accept him that way, but then love him too much to let him remain that way.
So it is with you and me. We all have GAPs and we will never be able to close that GAP by ourselves. If we could, we would have already done it.
All of us need to be in true community with a group of people who really know us and are able to accept us, but then love us too much to let us remain that way.
Who are you doing community with?
PS.
I just heard on Mike & Mike that a group of 10 to 15 yr old swimmers have chosen to take down Michael Phelps posters. It has been interesting to see the different responses between adults and young people. The adults are concern with the money he might lose, it seems like the youth are more concern with the character he lost with them.
