Michael Phelps: Hero or Zero?

Ryan Williams
English 103
Visual Rhetoric
February 23, 2009

Michael Phelps: Hero or Zero?

I am sure most people have heard about the recent drama that Michael Phelps was involved in. For those of you who are unaware about this news, a picture was turned in of Phelps taking a hit off a bong. When I first saw the image I was quite shocked. Could this be true? Is this the 14-time Olympic gold-medalist Michael Phelps smoking weed? Then it dawned on me that this shouldn’t even be considered as big a deal as the press is making it. The question I present you with is why or why shouldn’t it be worse for Michael Phelps to smoke weed than any other 23-year-old in our society?
Michael Phelps is said, by many, to be the greatest all-around competitor in the history of his sport. We all know about the present Michael, but where and how was he brought up? Phelps was born on June 30, 1985 in a town just outside of Baltimore, Maryland. His parents are Fred and Debbie Phelps. He was the youngest child of the family to his older sisters Hilary and Whitney. Fred, who is a former state trooper, was said to have been a descent athlete in his day. Fred obviously passed his athleticism to his children because all three got involved in swimming at an early age. Hilary showed a lot of interest in swimming, but eventually gave up the sport. Whitney stuck with the sport, and as one of the best swimmers in her area, tried out for the U.S. Olympic team at the age of fifteen. She didn’t even qualify and this left Michael devastated for his sister. This gave Michael the drive and heart that he shows in every single swimming competition he participates in. (Stewart et.al, 2009)
Michael Phelps, as a seven-year-old, did not like swimming one bit, so his instructors just let him float on his back until he got used to the water. He overcame his fear of the water within a short period of time, and mastered his first stroke of swimming, the backstroke. Michael began focusing on swimming more and more, and began spending many hours in the pool. This was soon challenged when Phelps was diagnosed with ADHD when he was nine years old. His inspiration for continuing his focus on swimming came during the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, Georgia. At the age of eleven, Michael watched swimmers Tom Malchow and Tom Dolan become champions, and this gave Phelps reach down deep and begin his journey to become a champion as these two had. (Stewart et.al, 2009)
Michael’s life was not always easy for him during his youth. His parents, who were high school sweethearts, fought for many years, and after splitting up and getting back together once, the two finally divorced for good in 1992. Michael has little contact with his father now (Stewart et.al, 2009). Having gone through the same case with my parents, I know this can cause many problems in a child’s life. A child needs a solid father-figure in his/her life, and without this the child can be easily persuaded into making poor decisions for his or herself. I am not saying this is an excuse for Michael’s case with him smoking cannabis, but I will say that in my case I had times where I made poor decisions due to the lack of a solid father-figure. To me this could have been a huge factor in not only the decision to smoke marijuana, but any wrong decisions he may have made while growing up.
With the lack of a father-figure in his life, Michael started his swimming career at Towson’s Loyola High School pool. It soon became clear that he needed better coaching as well as facilities, so Michael went on to the North Baltimore Aquatic Club at the Meadowbrook Aquatic and Fitness Center. This is where Phelps met Bob Bowman, the new father-figure in Michael’s life. Bowman noticed Michael’s rare talent from the beginning. Bowman first noticed Michael’s longs limbs and huge hands and feet, but it wasn’t until he noticed Phelps’ drive and desire to win and better himself, that Michael was going to make it a long way in the sport of swimming. This held true as we all know of Michael Phelps becoming a 14-time gold-medalist in the Olympics (Stewart et.al, 2009). The drive and heart that Michael has shown over the years has got to influence one to support and believe in him, despite a few wrong decisions he has made throughout his life.
Let’s now look at the two sides of how society sees Phelps’ recent case of him smoking weed at a party in Columbia, South Carolina. First, let’s look at the negative views of his actions. One downfall of Michael’s actions is he let down many people that look or looked up to him as a role model. Kellogg’s gave Phelps the image that every athlete wants, and that is one that children dream of someday becoming. Phelps’ actions in smoking the cannabis also let down many parents as well as Michael’s family. Some of our nation’s people saw this act as a disgrace and it has changed many people’s views on Michael Phelps as a person. Some claim that his actions support drug-use, and that the weed he smoked could have been part of the drug-war that is going on just south of the border. The major negative effect this has had on Michael’s image is that it shows that even he, a 14-time gold-medalist, even has times of poor judgment, and this shows weakness to his previous “supernatural” image. Michael is now forced to deal with the criticism of the people that now look down on him. Several people have even stated that after hearing Michael speak, they now see that he is not a very bright individual, but I believe this is just something for this type of people to complain about. Believe it or not, it was quite difficult finding articles and statements that criticized Michael’s actions. I never really found a solid argument of why this was such a big deal, or why Michael should be treated any different than an average 23-year-old in our society (Towleroad, 2009). Have you made your decision yet? Do you believe Michael Phelps should be punished, or humiliated like he has been?
After discussing the negative views on this case, let’s now look at the views that are not necessarily for Michael’s actions, but more towards supporting Michael as an athlete and an overall good person. The most common views I came across showed care for Michael, which is what he needs at a time like this. Even though Michael is an athlete and role model, one has to keep in mind that he is a 23-year-old that has many pressures in his life when out at parties. Peer pressure is huge challenge in many young men/women’s lives, and wins in most cases. Some say that society should forgive Michael because he is only a human, and that if they had to train is hard and often as Michael does, they would be tempted to take a hit off of the bong themselves. Some people that are behinds Phelps give him the advice to pick who he hangs out with a little better next time he goes out partying. This is not saying that it is ok for anyone to smoke marijuana, but if you are going to do it, at least have enough sense to do it around people you trust. One person states, “This whole pot thing is over the top. I can think of Obama, Clinton (he didn’t inhale – yeah right), Bush – including Laura, Bloomberg…the list goes on…” In this statement, the individual tried to cover up Phelps’ actions by comparing them to what other well-known people in our country have done. If this is true, I find it interesting that these people have made the same decisions, since they all have made some pretty important decisions in our country. I also observed that some believe this case to be a cover up for all of the other problems that are going on in the country, such as how poor our economy is at the moment (Towleroad, 2009).
This whole case has brought enormous arguments about legalizing marijuana. Though this is not the argument, I was quite amazed to see the number of individuals who strongly believe that the plant/drug should be legalized (Towleroad, 2009). For the most part, I have always been against legalizing marijuana, but after reading some of these articles, I found myself persuaded in legalizing it. So, should marijuana be legalized?
After analyzing the situation, comments, and articles about the Michael Phelps drama, I have to say that I am still very supportive of Michael. I am not going to mention whether or not I agree with his choice of smoking the cannabis, but I will say that it was a bad decision for him to do such an act around untrustworthy people. I feel anger towards the person that took the picture, and it made me realize that you can never be too sure of who you can trust these days. Michael Phelps is still a role model to me. The way I see it, after living in such a stressful environment for however months out of the year an athlete does, everyone deserves a little time to let loose, relax, and just be themselves without having people trying to catch any and every flaw they have. Is Michael Phelps still or hero, or have his actions turned him into a zero?sd
















Works Cited

"Michael Phelps Issues Apology After Bong Hit Photo Surfaces." Towleroad. 2 Feb. 2009. 18 Feb. 2009 .

Stewart, Mark, Mike Kennedy, and Ron Jaffe. "JockBio: Michael Phelps Biography." Jock Bio. 18 Feb. 2009 .

This image shows the United States Olympic swimmer, Micheal Phelps, smoking out of a bong at a college party in South Carolina. This image shows that even star athletes such as Michael have flaws such as the rest of us. Although I believe that it is no big deal, the person who took this wanted everybody to know that even Michael Phelps isn't perfect.

This is a picture of Barry Bonds' so-called rookie card for the Major Leagues. I'm sure all of you know about Bonds' past experiences with cases dealing with steroids in the league. This picture is mocking not only him, but others that claim that he has not used steroids throughout his career.

Tim Tebow as a Super Hero

This is an image of Tim Tebow, the quarterback of the Florida Gators. The picture shows him depicted as a super hero, which was done to compare his unique skills as a quarterback to that of one with supernatural powers. I also believe that the image illustrates Tebow's title of an outstanding leader, as well as a wonderful, Christian role model for the youth in our country.

I posted this picture because I liked the description of the image showing agony, and how it shows that the saying "no pain, no gain", isn't always the case.

This image is hilarious! I know it doesn't relate to pathos, logos, etc., but I just thought it would be a fun picture to talk about.

Ryan Williams
English 103
A.1

My Learning Development through My Mom’s Eyes

I was quite excited when I found out that I had to do a paper based on an interview. I was excited because I haven’t done a project like this is quite some time. I was assigned to interview a close relative or close friend about my learning development, and if it changed from the beginning until high school. I was very interested in what kind of answers I would receive from the questions I made up.
Since my mom was the one mostly involved with my school activities, I decided to interview her. I began the interview by asking her about the age that I first started to learn, or when I first showed an interest in learning. Her response didn’t surprise me very much, but it made me feel good about myself. She told me that being the youngest of three children helped me tremendously. She said that since they were older and already in school that I drew my attention towards their studies, and wanted to start school early. My wish was granted when I began attending school at the age of four.
The next question I asked was, “What different career choices did I have throughout my school years?” She began to laugh and said, “Oh Lord, where do I start?” Then, she began naming them starting with elementary school. She said I always wanted to work on a farm in my early years of elementary, but as I began to play sports, I would just settle as becoming an NFL quarterback. Not just any quarterback, but the next Brett Favre. As I entered middle school, I started taking baseball very seriously, and then changed my career choice to becoming a professional baseball player. She said, “You just wouldn’t settle for anything less than becoming a pro at whatever sport you were playing.” In high school, I had two different career choices. These two were becoming a game warden, or a physical therapist. Mom said, “I thought you would surely take the path of sports medicine, since you were a patient in physical therapy for three sessions!” Growing up with an older brother, sports, four wheelers, and a dirt bike, it was hard to go a few weeks without an injury, but I’m not complaining because they all made me who I am today.
“Overall, you were a well-rounded student, and very ambitious. You were never a problem child, and your teachers enjoyed having you as a student. Of the three children you were the only one that was consistently on time. Sports were always a big part of your life, but they never took away from your studies, they made you a stronger student if anything, and helped you learn time management.” It seems as if my mom thinks I was a great student, but there are many things that she doesn’t know about! My study habits have carried me a long way, and I have lived my dream of becoming a Clemson Tiger!

Ryan Williams
English 103
A.2

A Broad Outlook on My Learning Development

When I began searching through my past, I realized that it is not an easy task to determine one’s own learning development throughout his or her past. One of my major problems was that I had no clue where to even start. As time passed and memories began flowing through my mind, I started realizing what kind of student I was, and the many different phases of becoming a true learning student. I was quite surprised to find the many ways that I changed my study habits, as well as the many factors that influenced these changes, including the most important one of all, technology.
My learning development was pretty consistent from elementary through high school. I never really studied outside of the classroom during these years, but mainly because I always gave my best effort in the classroom. I made good grades for the most part, and always enjoyed working in groups. Sports were never a bother to my studies, and I actually tried harder when I was participating in sports, so that my coaches would see that I was a hard worker on and off the field. Though these years were not too challenging, the first semester of college at Clemson University brought about countless hours of studying in the library, as well as more papers than I wanted to write. I have learned to accept these challenges, and I plan to continue to excel in my studies.
One of my most favorite classes in the years previous to college was English. Though grammar was somewhat of a challenge, I grew to like the subject and always enjoyed writing papers. I have a pretty descent imagination, and I was never scared to put it to use. Most of my English teachers were laid back and rather lenient. I wrote a quite a few research papers throughout high school, wrote in a competitive assignment, and wrote many essays in attempt to receive scholarships for college. I won an Award in the 5th grade for an essay I wrote, and I ended up receiving quite a few scholarships due to some of the essays I wrote.
High school brought about a whole new world to me in technology. Before then, I knew very little about the internet, text messaging, instant messaging, or the many search engines used for research. The use of the internet has helped me tremendously, and I now use it for many ways of communication, most importantly Facebook. I also use the internet by watching tons of videos on Youtube. Another part of technology that I use daily is text messaging. I carry out whole conversations through texting, and would much rather text someone than call them.
In conclusion, I will have to say that I really enjoyed looking back deep into my past and finding out what kind of student I have been over the many years of school. Each year brings more and more challenges, but I am learning to rise to these challenges and take them on with my best possible effort.

This is an image from Tyler Perry's House of Payne. I posted this image because it shows ethos, which means credibility. I also posted this because I thought it was a pretty funny way of showing credibility.