Hero Cult

The 23 year-old fastest aquatic human has been living it up and riding the gravy train of his Olympic success. But lest we forget that he is still essentially a kid, a British tabloid gave us a little reminder recently in the form of photos of his pre-Beijing pot smoking (at which he seems quite skilled). Four years ago, he got picked up on a DUI charge.
This is a kid bred and raised to meet superhuman physical expectations from an early age. His life revolves around training and competing. Combine that lack of social and emotional maturity with instant celebrity status and you have the ingredients for a cautionary tale.
But fire needs oxygen to keep it going.
It's our society that puts these ridiculous, one-dimensional expectations of people in the public eye.
We are sick with Hero Cult Syndrome, bestowing messianic expectation on our president and expecting a kid deprived of the opportunity to develop and mature socially and emotionally to act like superman.