He won 8 gold medals at the Olympic Games in Beijing and broke Mark Spitz's record of 7 medals won in a single Olympic games. This is what he should be remembered for as it was an unbelievable accomplishment and my entire family sat in front of the TV all summer and watched him do it. But...the story.
My son Zachary and I were studying for a Science test one night. It was a really long lesson and Z-pack was getting a little distracted (imagine that), and in between me asking him a question about the Earth's orbit, he says, "Mom, this is not about Science, but can I ask you a question?" Not really atypical for Zack, but what came next was. He asked, "What is marijuana?" Whoa! Stop the studying! "What?" I asked, "Why are you asking me that?" Zack goes on to explain that Mr. Ron (a college student who picks him up from school, said that they were trying to make it legal to smoke marijuana in California, because it helps people who are really sick) told him about it, but said that he never used it and it was a drug. Semi-concerned, I asked, "Zack, Does Mr. Ron smoke marijuana?" "No!" he answered. I figured I better keep going. I asked, "Zack, do you know anyone who smokes marijuana?" "No, but you do," he answered.
Taken aback, I said, "I do?" "Yep," he said. I thought for a minute, and then said, "Who?"
"You know," said Zack.
I thought for another minute, "Who?" I asked again.
"You know," he said again.
I truly had no idea who he was talking about...
I'm sure you guessed the answer.
"He won 8 medals in the Olympics," Zack said.
"Michael Phelps!" I laughed, totally relieved at the answer.
Later when I was relaying the story to Jeff, I thought to myself how horrible that was. Such a tremendous athlete who had accomplished such a wonderful feat, was remembered by my son for smoking marijuana. I will blame it on his sudden fame and his immaturity, but it is still such a sad fact. So many kids look up to athletes as role models when many of them are not deserving. I hope Michael Phelps has learned from his mistake and the rest of his career is untarnished with scandal. I also hope that his foolish act does not influence any of the many children who watched him make history, as we did.
Moral of the story - Always act appropriately, you never know who is watching, and people love to talk about and remember the bad stuff.
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