It appears that the impact of his actions and inappropriate behavior has finally caught up with Michael Phelps. After a media storm hitting the mainstream media, blogs, and internet sites– Phelps made the following statement to the media about his most recent PR Nightmare incident:
“It’s something I am going to have to live with and something I’ll have to grow from. I know with all of the mistakes I made, I learned from them and that is what I expect to do from this. By no means it is fun for me, by no means is it easy.” — Michael Phelps
Okay, let’s look at this statement for a moment. Yes, all individuals have to take responsibility for their actions and if they do something wrong– they have to face the consequences. However, Phelps stating this appears almost like he is surprised that he has to deal with this situation– that is just my interpretation. Did he believe before that he wouldn’t have to face the consequences because he won eight gold medals in the Beijing Olympics as was the face of American swimming? Plus, this is not the first time that Phelps was in the news for illegal activity– he got a DUI after the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Do we see a pattern in his behavior outside the pool?
I also find it interesting that Phelps mentioned that this is not “fun” or “easy” for him– well, yeah! He made a huge reputation mistake and was involved in a PR Nightmare. These situations of course are not fun to deal with, and are not easy to overcome by any means.
I believe that Phelps is going to have a hard road to climb from this. With the current economic times, athletic sponsorships are not growing on trees, and more corporations are going to evaluate and determine which endorsers to keep, and which ones to let go. Phelps has the potential to not only lose millions, but people are going to remember him as being a great athlete that participates in illegal and image damaging activities.
These are just some of my thoughts on the situation. Hope you all are having a great day. 🙂
Best Wishes,
Karen
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