Phelps at a press conference in Saudi Arabia in January, left, and in a photo published by "News of the World"
In the water, Michael Phelps is without peer. On land, he’s made splashes for the wrong reasons. Given the stratospheric heights to which he climbed during the Beijing Olympics last summer (8 gold medals in 8 races) Phelps’ stock had nowhere to go but down. And it plunged precipitously on Feb. 1, when a photograph surfaced in Britain’s News of the World depicting the aquatic golden boy taking a bong hit. Phelps was contrite and chalked up the incident, which the newspaper said occurred during a visit to the University of South Carolina in November, to a lapse of judgment. It’s not his first youthful indiscretion, however: just months after racking up six gold medals during the 2004 Olympics in Athens, the then 19-year-old superstar was charged with driving while intoxicated.