Michael Phelps with U.S. President George W. Bush

Michael Fred Phelps (born June 30, 1985) is an American swimmer and 14-time Olympic gold medalist (the most by any Olympian), who currently holds seven world records in swimming.

Between 2004 and 2008, Phelps attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, studying sports marketing and management. In May 2008, Phelps said he intends to return to Baltimore following the 2008 Olympics, joining Bob Bowman there when he leaves the University of Michigan, saying, "I'm not going to swim for anybody else. I think we can both help the North Baltimore Aquatic Club go further. I'm definitely going to be in Baltimore next year." The club has announced that Bowman is leaving the University of Michigan to become the club's CEO. Phelps purchased a house in the Fells Point section of Baltimore, where he intends to reside after returning from the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Phelp's teammates call him "Gomer" because he reminds them of Gomer Pyle, the good-natured, naive country boy played by Jim Nabors.

He has made an estimated $5 million per year in endorsements, plus a $1 million bonus from swimsuit maker Speedo for winning eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games.

Throughout the 2008 Olympics, Phelps was questioned by the press if perhaps his feats were "too good to be true", a reference to unsupported rumors that Phelps may be taking performance enhancing drugs. In response, Phelps noted that he had signed up for Project Believe, a project by the United States Anti-Doping Agency in which U.S. Olympians can volunteer to be tested in excess of the World Anti-Doping Agency guidelines. (Wikipedia)

Marian Drăgulescu

Marian Drăgulescu (born December 18, 1980 in Bucharest) is a Romanian gymnast. He won four gold medals at the 2004 European championships, making him one of the favourites for medals at the 2004 Summer Olympics. A power athlete, he has long specialized in vault and floor.

Drăgulescu helped his team to a bronze medal and was a forerunner in the all around event until a mistake on the high bar, after which he still thrilled the crowd with a difficult routine. He won silver in the men's floor only after a tiebreaker was needed with gold medalist Kyle Shewfelt. On the men's vault he performed the exceptionally difficult vault that bears his name (a handspring double front with half turn) and received a 9.9, the highest score awarded in World or Olympic competition since 1995. It seemed he needed only to land his second vault to take gold, but he fell. However Drăgulescu was still awarded the bronze.

His club, Dinamo Bucharest, promised to Marian, when he was in top of his career, a beautiful house in Bucharest. He never saw it.

In April 2007, at the European Championship at Amsterdam, he had a very serious accident during the floor exercise that affected his vertebral column. The medical RMN consult showed a spinal fissure of the column in the lumbar area.

Marian Drăgulescu with his family

But Marian Drăgulescu has a family. His wife, Larisa Drăgulescu, and a very beautiful daughter, Beatrice Maria. Beatrice Maria was diagnosed with bilateral hypoacusis. She could not hear, nor talk. The only real help was a surgical intervention in Vienna. So, Marian Drăgulescu borrowed 40,000 euros from his friends thinking he will return the money after the Beijing Olympics, where it was favorite for the vault and flood exercises at gymnastics.

And, because the Romanian physicians did not approve the participation of  Marian Drăgulescu at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing due to his medial problems, he get an approval from an US physician

At Beijing 2008 after a perfect first ( noted 16.800 ) he fell at the second one and lost his chance to win his first Olympic Gold Medal, only face to Athens, he didn't even catch the bronze. Marian Drăgulescu finished the Summer Olympics without no medal, when he need it more than ever, not for his personal success but for his life and his daughter health.

More than this, it seems that his club, Dinamo Bucharest, will abandon Marian Drăgulescu because he has no more future in gymnastics due to his previous accident. And it is possible to have no or very poor job in the future.

But after his fails at Beijing, during the interviews, I did not see the desperation in his eyes. Just a little dizzy, and very amazed because he didn't understand what was going wrong.

Two sportsmen, two gold medalists, two different lives.

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