Conscious

CHAPTER 20Befriend Your Hijackers

In sports, there are rare athletes who stand above, giants who tower over even the greatest who came before and after them. Michael Phelps at age 24 seemed to be in the company of transcendent figures like Babe Ruth, Pelé, and Joe Montana. But what happened to Phelps is an old story: An incredibly talented person dedicates his life to the pursuit of excellence and achieves the pinnacle of professional success, only to fall prey to life's hijackers once he reached the top.

Discovered at age 11 by Bob Bowman, his long-term coach, Phelps first got his feet wet at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. At age 15, he was the youngest male to make the US Olympic swimming team in 68 years. Four years later, in the 2004 Athens Olympics, he won his first gold medal.¹ Phelps didn't just win one gold medal; he won six golds and two bronze medals, thoroughly establishing himself as a phenomenon. He returned in 2008 to dominate the Beijing Olympics. He didn't disappoint, taking home eight gold medals and breaking records, including Mark Spitz's seven golds in a single Olympic Games. Beijing left Phelps feeling as if he was “in a dream world.” But unbeknownst to millions of spellbound fans around the world, there was trouble brewing in the water.²

In 2009, a photograph surfaced of Michael Phelps using marijuana. The image was the first step in a very public downward spiral for the Olympian. The years that followed Phelps's astonishing eight-gold-medal performance ...