Michael Phelps landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated last week, decked out in a soaking wet tux as Sportsman of the Year.
But that's nothing compared to the dunking he's taking from the media over his love life.
The blogs are grilling him over his Las Vegas cocktail waitress girlfriend, a curvy neck-snapper named Caroline "Caz" Pal.
A couple of weeks ago, People magazine broke the story that the girlfriend was coming to Baltimore for Thanksgiving dinner with the Phelps family.
And the New York Post, after learning the girlfriend had posed semi-nude for various racy Web sites, quickly reacted with this charming, Tabloid Hell headline: "Olympian's mom meets strip gal."
Even The Baltimore Sun's Page 2 columnist, Laura Vozzella, had some fun with the guess-who's-coming-to-dinner? angle, calling Caz Pal "the tartiest dish at a Baltimore Thanksgiving this year."
Even before the news of the girlfriend broke, many were tsk-tsking Phelps' desire to play in the 2009 World Series of Poker, which he's been prepping for at the Vegas casinos.
So the Olympic swimming star is taking his lumps amid much media clucking that he's lost his way.
To which I would say: Can't we leave this guy alone for five minutes?
Who cares if he's dating a 26-year-old Vegas hottie?
Who cares if he loves poker and wants to see how far he can take his game?
Look, the guy's been doing nothing but swimming 4,000 laps a day in a chlorinated pool for half his life.
He's done nothing but sacrifice for his sport since he was a kid. And he's still basking in the glow of what might be the greatest Olympic performance of all time.
Let him live a little. So he hasn't exactly been a choirboy. Whose business is that besides his?
Here's another thing: Can we all remember that this guy is 23? And still finding his way in life?
If you think 23 is all grown up and that people that age never make mistakes and only make smart, sensible decisions about the people they hang out with and the activities they pursue, you haven't met too many 23-year-olds.
The sad thing about all this snarky gossip is that it shows how much Phelps' life has changed since his eight-gold-medal haul in Beijing last summer.
Privacy is out the window for this guy. Maybe he could hang out unnoticed in nightclubs and casinos before they hung all those medals around his chest, but those days are over now.
