How did Michael Phelps' recreational use of marijuana affect your opinion of the Olympian?

What? He used marijuana? How did I miss that?!?

I don’t really care. He’s a big boy. I’m sure he can handle it. I don’t believe in this role model business anyone. No one is a god. All heroes have their flaws. He’s a human being, for crying out loud!

No. It might affect my opinion of marijuana.

It just made him seem like a real person.

I just got the munchies thinking about it….and I started to giggle a bit.

It didn’t except, maybe, he can’t chose friends that well.

@daloon Are you saying that’s a flaw?

It affected my opinion positively. I think of young Olympians as virtual machines who eat, sleep, and breathe their sport. It’s nice to know Michael Phelps is closer to a regular young adult than I may have given him credit for. Makes me question his choice of friends though! What d-bag sold those pictures?

Whatever!

@jfos A flaw in that he’s doing something that’s against the law. Not that I disapprove of marijuana. At least, occasionally.

it reinforces the possibility that he used performance enhancing drugs during the olympics.

He’s a young adult, he makes foolish decisions. We all have/do/will. It’s unfortunate that his had to be known and judged by the whole world, but it’s hard to judge someone for a simple transgression. Yes, he should know better than to do stupid things in public since he’s a well-known figure, but overall…he’s in his early 20’s, juvenile things happen.

@ragingloli
That seems to be an overstatement and a half. Weed is a long ways from doping or steroids.

Made him more human to me. He’s a grown man. He can make his own decisions. Smoking pot doesn’t seem to have hurt his performance. To me it’s like someone saw him drinking a beer. Big deal. Except I think alcohol is worse.

” One toke over the lines sweet Jesus, one toke over the line ”.

That he isn’t all that smart. He should have been aware that he was in the public eye – he was all over the tv, internet, magazines and papers. People would be interested in just about anything he was doing and go crazy over catching him doing something shocking.

Are we ignoring or forgetting about his previous DUI? He can make his own decisions and he decided to accept endorsement monies. Now, he has an obligation to represent those sponsors responsibly. If he chooses to drink & drug, he needs to be far more discreet or stop trying to be the face of wholesome while cashing that paycheck. In Baltimore, they call him him a Baltimoron.

I felt sorry that he had to take the thrashing he did. I didn’t suppose it was his first time. I thought his friend was a rat.

I think more highly of him. I stopped purchasing a lot of Kellogs products though.

Seriously! at least he didn’t claim he didn’t inhale. SO WHAT!

I thought, “Cool, mon!”.

@ragingloli – think it reinforces the possibility that he is a cocaine smuggling addict who pushes it on unsuspecting kids at the pool while trying to convince their mothers to sit on his lap!

Or am I making an unjustifiable leap here buy connecting a drug that is legal in parts of the world and parts of this country for certain reasons with a man who voluntarily submitted his urine to the most strict drug screening practice the Olympics has ever seen?

It made me think he was pretty stupid. I mean, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with marijuana in and of itself—but he knew when he took part in the Olympics and when he signed all those endorsement contracts that not using controlled substances was part of the contract. How much money did he lose by choosing to smoke up? Did he think of the consequences?

It didn’t affect my opinion of him at all. Michael Phelps with his record gold medals representing USA is fantastic and all, but my level of interest only goes that far. What he does when he’s not representing the country, is none of my concern.

not at all. everyone needs an outlet.

I took it as proof that, like many young men his age, he doesn’t always behave in mature fashion. He is a great swimmer, and probably a nice guy, but he is not a god.

It made him seem really irresponsible and immature.

I liked him better. Before that he was just some amazing athlete that probably wouldn’t have given me the time of day if I had known him in high school. After that he felt more relatable to me, and almost like an underdog in some ways because of the Kellogs thing and because so many people were bad-mouthing him.

I felt sorry for the guy: not even a superman who made his country proud can be spared from becoming fodder to the tabloid press and dragged in the mud like he’s no better than a low-rent, mediocre starlet. Disgusting. I“m appalled by the pro-drugs messages coming from all sides but this was pathetic.

@La_chica_gomela – He probably would have been absolutely delighted if a fellow student was nice to him in school, because he was bullied a great deal due to his big ears and his speech impediment. He also was one of the kids who got labeled as ADHD. That’s why his mom got him involved with swimming, to give him something at which to excel and where he could fit in.

In high school he simply wouldn’t have had time to notice anything. He basically went to school, swam, played video games, ate, and slept. Now he also plays with his dog.

@Darwin: Wow, I didn’t know that!

It didn’t affect my opinion of him. My opinion is pretty much about the dumb prohibition.

I think this is pretty amusing and makes some good points.

@Bri_L: Lurve for hilarity! That pretty much said it all, really!

people who act like their role models but really aren’t shouldn’t try to be role models. their just in it for sponsors and being payed to promote products.

Oh the horrors of marijuana. Ya know if you smoke it you’ll never amount to anything. Oh wait a minute….

@uberbatman At least he’s on the subway ads now. That’s knowing your target audience right there.

who cares. it wasn’t a big deal but the media made it one. he’s an unbelievable athlete. if he can smoke weed and swim like that then really, who DOES care?!

i like the fact that he lost his most recent race without the suite

@whereisfreespeech: Are you talking about this?

Quote: “Phelps lost his first major international race since 2005, the 200-meter freestyle, to unheralded German Paul Biedermann earlier in the week and then roared back to claim five gold medals by the end of the meet.”

It’s now early evening on August 7th, 2009, and that’s the ONLY loss I can find of his—and it says in the article that it’s “since 2005”...

yep

No one wins every race. The fact that Phelps lost one but then went on to win others speaks well of him.