I have been avoiding this story for a while now but the juxtaposition of two American Olympians both in their late 20's surrounded by girls sporting bottle-blonde hair and day-glo bikinis was way to surreal to pass up.
The headline reads: "Ryan Lochte vs. Michael Phelps: How Do These Olympians' Vegas Parties Compare?
From E!:
Unlike Lochte, Phelps did not have a swimming competition with Prince Harry. And neither medalist was involved in a nude photo scandal with a certain redheaded royal. Instead, Phelps celebrated his retirement from competitive swimming with friends and Olympic gold medalist Allison Schmitt and poker star Phil Hellmuth on Saturday night at Surrender, raging alongside DJ Afrojack. Phelps took the mic and exclaimed, "This is my first night of retirement at Surrender!" He then threw back a shot of chilled Grey Goose vodka.
[Link]
From their gold medal performances to making plastic spectacles of themselves. Why can't these weenies be as well mannered and as classy as Ian Thorpe, Missy Franklin or Natalie Coughlin?
6 comments:
and on the flip side you got Kendrick Monk with skateboarding accident, Nick D'Arcy with brawling and Grant Hackett with just drunkard. Mostly why you have those five (including Phelps and Lochte) is all because as you post "on an iPhone, a blog, a Twitter feed, You Tube, Facebook, Perez Hilton…" Ian Thorpe and Natalie Coughlin are the pre-web2.0 world of over sharing. And as for Missy without knowing her will just chalk it up to her youth. Maybe when she starts dating a soccerroo and has a few a beers at a game she'll tweet something equally as dumb as Stephanie Rice.
Oh my, I forgot about Stephanie Rice...
She lost Jaguar as a sponsor over her gay slurs but as for Ian Thorpe
Point taken about the pre-web 2.0 world.
Ian Thorpe seemingly has a private life still and he is smart enough not to take his "pals" to Vegas.
"Why can't Phelps & Lochte be as well mannered as Missy, Natalie?"
Simple, reallY: They can't be as well mannered because they AREN'T as well mannered. As the saying goes: "If the tail wags & barks, it's probably a dog."
Funny how we still live is this world where athletic excellence is somehow perceived as an indication of some manifestation of inner character. More times than not, it isn't.
Let's look at it this way:
In the middle 70's we had Mark Spitz and Jodie Foster.
The early 2000's we have Michael Phelps and Lindsay Lohan.
When did boorish behavior become fashionable?
"cos we didn't know as much about Spitz & Foster as we do about Lohan & Phelps.
FYI, I didn't know Spitz personally but I know guys who did: He was an arrogant ass-hat.
Just to throw in my two-cents:
I say let the guys party. If it was me - at twenty-something, in Amnerica, after the biggest competition of my life, even with the world watching and judging (because the media loves to criticize the personal lives of its heroes) - I wouldn't think twice about getting lit with a bunch of hot chicks in Vegas for a few weeks.
I'd challenge any man in that situation who says he'd have done differently.
These guys have deferred the vast majority of their life to train and represent our country (and quite impressively at that) at the biggest and most watched athletic event in the planet's history.
I say cut them a little slack. Why are we so quick to judge?
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