What ever happened to just being a phenom?  What ever happened to the athlete that is just a once in a lifetime athletic freak?  That athlete who is product of good genes and good work ethic and not just good genetic manipulation or good science.  What is wrong with that athlete that reduces the competition to compete for second?  Suddenly, an athlete that is in a class of its own is doping.  Greatness is no longer a product of hard work, sacrifice, and God-given talent but a by-product of a really good pharmacist and the black market.

Instead of having a pool on how many golds Michael Phelps will win, people should have had a pool on the date that the story of him denying using performance enhancing drugs would hit the presses.  Well, if you had Friday, August 15th, it is time to collect.  Michael Phelps had to deny any doping use.

Is it jealously or did the Mitchell Report and Ben Johnson just mess up our psyche so much that we must think every athletic accomplishment is a product of science.  Well, I'm not buying that Phelps is doping.  He looks too fundamentally sound in that pool.  Let's face it, the guy is phenom.  He is the Michael Jordon of swimming.  Plus, the guy has won gold before these games.  He is just winning more because he happens to be in his prime and Ian Thorpe hung up the Speedo.  Plus, wouldn't you think the IOC would be testing him daily with his quest for the great 8?  So far he is nowhere near being the next Ben Johnson.  Instead, we should just embrace him as this generation's Mark Spitz, only better and with more gold medals.