I don’t know that much about Michael Phelps, but after reading this article, I’m wondering what a little spoiled twat he is.
He goes on about how tormented he was a a child. Ooh, the other kids picked on me because of my ears. It was a nightmare! :rolleyes:
Then he goes on about blowing off everyone who throughout his life, didn’t treat him like a queen. Wah! Now he gets his “revenge.”
Based on this article, I’m thinking, “grow up kid.” Those medals aren’t going to pay your bills forever, and you just may regret being so spiteful when it’s time to get a real job and you were a dick to everybody.
Is the article biased? Am I wrong?
The guy hardly looks to me like he was ever an ugly duckling, and whatever “torment” he endured is an invention of his own victim-oriented self-delusion.
I don’t think so - he’s pretty much a normal everyday American kid as far as I can tell. He comes across well in the interviews and stuff I’ve seen in the UK. He’s apparently not a prima donna with his teammates at all, and let’s face it he could be as he is probably the greatest swimmer in history. The journalist is just spinning some paper thin anecodotes to try and put some angles into the article.
A lot of these young athletes are blank canvasses - they haven’t really had the chance to develop their personalities much. Guys like Phelps can appear a bit maladroit and bland, but I don’t think it’s fair to call him a dick.
Meh. What I got from the article was he was devoted to his swimming when he was young, probably something of an outsider because of that. Some older kids made fun of his ears when he was 11, and when one of them tried to congratulate him for making the Olympic team when he was 15, he blew him off. Perfectly normal behavior for a 15 year old. Now that’s he’s famous, everyone who couldn’t give him the time of day when he was younger wants to hang out with him, and he’s blowing them off. Nothing I’d call dickish.
As I mentioned in my thread about memories from the 72 Olympics, Mark Spitz was pretty much hated by the other members of the US Swim team (at least by the Women’s Team) but they all agreed he was great at swimming.
I don’t think Phelps comes anywhere near being a “dick” in comparison. I think he is highly motivated, and his swimming schedule is insane - the guy is barely dry and has to swim yet again to either qualify or go for a medal. He has mapped out his every move, down to when he can eat and sleep and talk to the press. He might have a mild case of OCD, but it fulfills the need for these Olympics.
Besides, if the dude can do what he has planned - winning more than Spitz - he can pretty much retire on the upcoming endorsements and public appearances, and let’s be honest, it is not like swimmers make a ton of money, so if you are going to do it at least have a plan; and Phelps most certainly has his plan. Good for him.
In a sport with Mark Spitz and Gary Hall Jr.*, Phelps isn’t even on the radar for “dickish”. He comes across as a fairly affable guy.
And on this board, people are wondering about the effects of being taunted? How many members do we have that profess to being scarred for life because of “jocks” taunting them as kids?
Well, walling them out is one thing, talking (bragging?) about it seems a bit dickish. The article seems based on things he’s saying now and he’s what, 23? He’s not 15 anymore. Some recollections in that article were taken when he was 15, but some of his comments seem recent, and he seems to still enjoy talking about blowing people off. That doesn’t strike me as very classy at 23.
Was Phelps even the one telling those stories? Unless I’m misreading the article it seemed to be his mother or perhaps his coach that was telling them. The quote from Phelps was, “It bothered me at the time, but it definitely made me a stronger person” and that doesn’t seem bad at all.
Well, maybe they will, if he’s smart. That still doesn’t excuse being a dick because the other kids teased you when you were 11.
I hope the article is biased, and he really isn’t still harboring that grudge.
Maybe it’s a bit personal for me, but I was on the swim team at 11, and by that age I was already wearing coke-bottle glasses and couldn’t even see when swimming. I had to count my strokes to know where the wall was before a turn, and I still made it to state championships by 14. So I don’t have much sympathy for a kid who got picked on because of his ears for a couple years.
Phelps is cute, and I can’t believe he ever got picked on that much.
I live in Detroit and I’ve worked in Ann Arbor and I’ve got a decent amount of exposure and connections to Ann Arbor. You never read or hear anything about him, negative or positive about him in the news. That makes me think that he’s a pretty normal guy.
So his mom relating an adecdote about when he was 15 – and the thrust of the story was that he pretended not to recognize someone who’d been a jerk to him – makes him a dick?
My mom could tell some doozies about how I behaved at 15. I’m lucky she doesn’t have the press asking her about my teen years.
If the worst thing he has done is at the age of 15 snub another kid who had taunted him to tears a few years before, he is hardly a dick. Sure, he could have been the bigger person and let the past go, but it is not often in life that you get to pay back hurt like that and I can’t blame him for doing it.
I AM tired of hearing about him. But that is NBC’s doing by running another feature on what Phelps had for breakfast in every hour of coverage. Hey look, as I am writing this “A day in the life of Micheal Phelps”. Cause there ain’t any thing else to show.
I’m so with you on this one. He seems like a nice enough guy, but all the NBC fawning and over exposure is making me quite sick of him. When they showed him sleeping, I nearly lost it. It’s not really his fault, but I’d be content not hearing about “the one” for the rest of the fortnight.
Huh? In that case, you should have sympathy for him because you had the same experience. The only thing “more to this story,” from what I’ve heard so far, is that you’re a little resentful that you’ve been through worse and - no offense intended - did not go on to achieve what Phelps did.
In context, the story is clearly being told by Phelps’ mother. There is no evidence he is exulting or feeling anything else about it eight years later.
There is not a quote from Michael Phelps confirming any part of this story. I’m sure it’s true, but the lack of a quote indicates he did not say anything interesting about it - including feelings of any lingering bitterness or satisfaction. His observation and celebrity and Facebook is just that. There’s nothing particularly obnoxious about it, although it is the kind of thing you aren’t supposed to say.
I meant to add two other things: that’s a crummy, mawkish article that tries to make some childhood teasing into a big deal when even the subject of the article doesn’t seem to think it’s a big deal, and I don’t think there is anything dickish about snubbing the kid in question. Frankly, that’s the kind of thing most of us would like to do.
To the extent that Phelps might be cute, perhaps his ears and quirky looks that he needed to eventually grow was why he was teased. I’ve known plenty of people who looked funny or just plain ugly when they were younger, but as they matured, the combination of what made them look like they did before became cute or interesting looking or striking – or all three.
From the article, Phelps doesn’t seem like a dick at all. A little driven perhaps but not a dick. I know when I eventually when the lotter, I’m going to invite all the people who ever teased me to a party that will be held in a place other than where they’re told to show up.
Wow, what a mean thing to say. You have no idea why I didn’t go on to what Phelps did, but having a mom with mental health problems turning me over to a priest who molested me and needing to get a job so I could stay in school made swim team practice kinda difficult, especially when I had to move out on my own at 16 and live as a runaway for awhile, mkay?
I’m under no illusions I’d have eventually made the olympics, so drop that please. Even if my life had been perfect, I may still not have had what it takes to make it. I remember the star on our team told me how he threw up in his mouth and swallowed it during every practice, because he was pushing himself so hard. I figured, “I’m not doing that. I like swimming, but not that much.”
And, I didn’t get teased so you’re wrong about that too. Well,I could have been teased and who knows, I probably did get teased sometimes but kids get teased for lots of things. I probably teased other kids right back.
Getting teased about your ears is hardly a hard luck story worth talking about, but maybe the media is just grasping for something. We all know they love to portray every athlete as having overcome some sort of adversity. It’s just now, at 23, Phelps seems to still enjoy blowing off those he left behind, and that’s not classy.
Oh, and no. I don’t think snubbing a kid who was mean to you at age 11 is something we all want to do. You, maybe.
Yeah, see - this is exactly why I said “no offense intended” and acknowledged that, even without knowing any of that stuff, you’d been through worse, because the glasses thing alone is worse than two kids picking on Phelps for his ears.
But I don’t think what I said was mean at all. I’m not calling you some bitter, washed up hasbeen, or a bad person for criticizing Phelps, anything. I said you sound a little resentful, which I think is true. Because the story in that article is not a big deal.
I never said you were, and I was not trying to suggest you were harboring a dream denied or anything of that type. But: he kept swimming even though he got picked on pretty badly, you kept swimming even though you had a serious physical challenge to overcome. That’s cause for sympathy in my view.
That’s exactly what this is, which is why I said what I did about the story in my second post.
It wouldn’t be, but I don’t see any evidence he’s still gloating about that one time he blew off that kid.
No, I don’t think I even remember anyone who was mean to me when I was 11. I was making a generalization. :rolleyes:
