Olympic swim star Michael Phelps, whose eight medals at the Athens Olympics included six golds, is devastated and apologetic after being arrested on drunken driving charges.
Maryland state police confirmed the arrest of the 19-year-old American hero last Thursday in Salisbury after his utility vehicle failed to halt at a stop sign. Two passengers were in the vehicle, police said.
Phelps, two years younger than the state’s legal age for drinking alcohol, also faces charges of impaired driving, failing to stop and violating licence restrictions.
”Last week I made a mistake,” Phelps said in a prepared statement. ”Getting into a vehicle after anything to drink is wrong, dangerous and unacceptable.
”I’m 19, but I was taught no matter how old you are you should take responsibility for your actions, which I will do. I made a mistake and I’m sorry about it.”
Phelps could lose lucrative sponsorship deals and spend time behind bars. First-time drunk-driving offenders in Maryland face up to one year in jail and a $1 000 fine.
Bob Bowman, Phelps’s coach, told the Chicago Tribune that his star pupil is ”devastated and rightly so”.
”He feels he has let the world down and in a way he has,” Bowman said. ”He’s fully aware he made a huge mistake. It’s going to hurt his reputation. That’s what breaks my heart. How he handles it from here will determine how much it hurts.”
Phelps was chasing the one-Olympic record of seven gold medals set by Mark Spitz but fell one title short, settling for six golds and two bronzes.
He missed out on a $1-million bonus that would have come from matching Spitz, but that Speedo sponsor deal includes another chance at the jackpot at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
With behaviour clauses common in such contracts, that bonus bonanza might not be available to Phelps should he be guilty of drunken driving. Speedo’s deal, reportedly worth $500 000 a year through 2009, might be gone as well.
”Our only comment at this time is to offer Michael support,” Speedo vice-president Stu Isaac told the Tribune.
Phelps was planning to move later this month to Michigan to continue his training with Bowman, now the men’s swim coach at the University of Michigan. — Sapa-AFP