Michael Phelps’ mom, Debbie, wrote a memoir called A Mom for All Seasons.  It’s about her experiences as a single mom, raising a son who blew the world away by winning 8 Olympic gold medals in swimming, then got everybody’s back up when he was photographed smoking pot not long after.

She talks about her childhood experiences of her father dying young and her mother somehow holding the family together and finding a way to provide for them, and then her own divorce, which left her in a similar position in raising her own children. 

She doesn’t condone Michael’s actions…either with this foray into pot smkoing, or with his 2006 DUI.  She says she loves and supports him, but considers these events some of the “hard times” that single parents have to go through. 

One thing I thought was very interesting was her comments about how young athletes don’t know how to deal with the fame and publicity that come with athletic success.  From the AP article:

This incident has led Debbie Phelps to a new crusade: developing programs to help athletes cope with life after the fame. She’s read up on the subject and believes many athletes, after working tirelessly to develop their skills on the playing field (or in the pool), find themselves woefully unprepared to deal with the real world.

“When they’ve met this optimal goal, sometimes it’s a hard process to come down from it,” she said. “When that last event has been swum, what happens next?”

I think there’s a lot of truth in that.  How often do we see promising young athletes ruin their reputations (at best) or lives (at worst) because they can’t handle the pressures off the court?  That’s just such a shame when it happens, and if Debbie Phelps can take her family’s struggles and help others through them, she’s got my support.

Debbie Phelps’ book comes out next Tuesday, April 14.

Photo from Us Magazine

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