When I was a kid, I was a competitive swimmer and springboard diver, so my earliest sports heroes were Olympians Mark Spitz and Greg Louganis. I remember as I phased out of diving, I used to get some stares for openly lionizing Louganis, since by then it was common knowledge that he was homosexual. And this was at a time when social acceptance of that simply was not what it is today. When it emerged that he was HIV-positive when he last competed in the Olympics, well, that stripped him of hero status in a lot of people’s eyes. I still revere the man, but I remember being disappointed in him for competing while failing to disclose his infection to others. That struck me as an awful risk to take. He remains a hero to me, but it’s tough when your heroes lose some of their shine.
I relate that story as the 2016 Rio Summer Games get underway. As I write this, the legendary U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps has already won his 19th gold medal—and might very well earn more before the games are through. At the moment, he has already won more gold medals than any other Olympian in modern history and has won more than the entire nation of Argentina. He’s won more than twice the entire nation of India, with its billion or so people. It’s thrilling to watch someone as historic as Phelps compete and, as an ex-swimmer, it’s a special thrill when an athlete of this kind of quality is from a sport you once competed in yourself.
