MICHAEL PHELPS: APPARENTLY HUMAN

National Post American swimmer and multiple gold medal-winner Michael
Phelps admitted Sunday that he smoked marijuana while attending a party at
the University of South Carolina last year. "I engaged in behaviour which
was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment," Mr. Phelps said in a
statement to the media. "I'm 23-years-old and ... I acted in a youthful
and inappropriate way, not in a manner people have come to expect from me.
For this, I am sorry."

There are, in these words, some nuggets worth considering. His decision to
take a puff from a bong at a private party may or may not have
"demonstrated bad judgment" -- but his decision to be photographed while
doing so certainly was. (This newspaper doesn't believe that smoking
marijuana should be a crime -- but we certainly don't encourage the
practice.) But even so, we offer our forgiveness. Young men are prone to
making errors of judgment, and this is a rather trivial one in the grand
scheme of things.

Certainly, he acted "not in a manner people have come to expect" from him.
But exactly what should we reasonably "expect" from Mr. Phelps-- a man
that is known to billions of people as a great swimmer, but whose inner
life is a total enigma? Sure, he happens to be one of the great athletes
of our times, and, yes, his eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics have
made him a household name. Does that mean he must live out the rest of his
house like the flawless two-dimensional image on a Wheaties box?

If there are any young people out there feeling betrayed by Michael
Phelps' drug experimenting, we suggest it's time to learn a valuable
lesson: Athletes and celebrities are human beings, notwithstanding their
God-like abilities to do one particular thing. (Did you know Mr. Phelps
was also arrested for drunk driving in 2004?)

Mr. Phelps is a vision of perfection in the pool -- that's it. He is no
role model any more than the members of this editorial board are. Nor
should he be forced into that role simply because of the medals around his
neck.