Phelps' life denies colleges' drinking argument

Somewhere in Maryland, there's a state employee who owns a piece of the gold Michael Phelps will bring home from Beijing. This fellow was never part of MP's training team, and neither mentor nor boyhood friend. In fact, he's someone Phelps probably doesn't like to think about - the state trooper on duty when the great athlete did something foolish and dangerous. The trooper stopped Phelps from driving out of Salisbury under the influence of alcohol, saving not only the Olympian's life but possibly someone else's. The man-dolphin magnificence we just saw in the Summer Games might never have occurred had that trooper not been there for Phelps one night in November 2004.

MP - 19 at the time, two years shy of the legal drinking age - had won eight medals at Athens a couple of months earlier. He went to a party near Salisbury University. About 11:30 p.m., with two friends as passengers, he drove away in a Land Rover, rolling through a stop sign, making a right and then a sudden left. The trooper saw this and ordered the vehicle to stop. When he approached the Rover, he detected "an extremely strong odor" of alcohol and noticed that Phelps' eyes were bloodshot and glassy. At first, Phelps denied drinking, but after sobriety tests, he apologized for the denial and told the trooper: "I was just scared because I have a lot to lose."

Everyone, starting with the news media, assumed that, by "a lot to lose," Phelps meant all the gold and celebrity his future promised, including endorsements and business opportunities. Of course, the most precious thing he stood to lose was his life, or the life of a friend, or some stranger in another car.

Phelps handled the episode smartly, expressing sincere regret right from the start. "Getting into a car with anything to drink is wrong, dangerous and unacceptable," Phelps told The Sun at the time. "I'm 19, but no matter how old you are, you should take responsibility for your actions, which I will do."

He pleaded guilty, and a judge sentenced him to 18 months' probation.

I only bring it up again because last week more than 100 college presidents said we should consider dropping the drinking age from 21 to 18. They can't stop students from binge-drinking, the presidents say, so lower the drinking age and students might be more responsible. The presidents and the group that recruited their support say the present drinking age has created a culture of alcohol abuse on campus.