While everyone else is looking to Ryan Locke, I can't get over Michael Phelps' inherently cocky behavior. In all of his races he made crude gestures afterwards including beckoning the glory to himself as well as holding up four fingers for four golds in a less-than-humble manor. Everyone knows you just earned the fourth in a row, Phelps, no need to rub it in.
This bothered me so much that in the one race Michael Phelps did not manage to take a gold in, I was happy to see him give others a shot at the gold for once. However, in his interview afterwards he was less than humble and encouraging towards his other teammates. He talked only of himself and how upset he was how he knew he could've done better. And yes, the whole US knew he could've done better, and it clearly hurt Phelps' massive ego to tie three ways for silver. However, he couldn't humbly accept the silver, no. If it's not gold, it's not enough for him. The news reporter nodded along and consoled Phelps for his "loss", even though he still took a medal home.
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Not everyone agrees with me about Phelps. Some say he deserves to have a bit of a big head. A bit of a big head? I argue, however, that you don't see our other best Olympians such as Simone Biles doing the things Michael Phelps does after he wins his competitions. In addition, he has more than "a bit of a big head." He is enormously arrogant. Moreover, some say they like him because he seemed a lot less vain this year than in the last Olympics, and he's really cleaned up his act in general, too. So it's okay to accept his cocky actions because his old actions were worse? Just because he's arguably the world's best swimmer should not excuse him from his pompous character. He could at least try to act humble. So while the whole world's stuck on Ryan Locke's drunk night and ruining his sponsorships, I just can't understand why Phelps didn't lose any sponsorship either for his ridiculous cocky behavior. I sure don't want to buy anything he is selling.
