Baltimore, MD (SportsNetwork.com) – Olympic swimming legend Michael Phelps disclosed Sunday he will “take some time away” from swimming in order to attend a program that will assist him as he focuses on himself.<\/p>\n
Phelps’ Twitter announcement came less than a week after he was arrested on a DUI charge.<\/p>\n
“The past few days have been extremely difficult,” Phelps said. “I recognize that this is not my first lapse in judgment, and I am extremely disappointed with myself.<\/p>\n
“I’m going to take some time away to attend a program that will provide the help I need to better understand myself.<\/p>\n
“Swimming is a major part of my life, but right now I need to focus my attention on me as an individual, and do the necessary work to learn from this experience and make better decisions in the future.”<\/p>\n
It was Tuesday when Phelps was arrested and charged with DUI, excessive speed and crossing double lane lines within the Fort McHenry Tunnel on I-95 in Baltimore. He was later released.<\/p>\n
A report from the Maryland Transportation Authority said Phelps was driving a 2014 white Land Rover at a speed of 84 mph in a 45-mph zone. An officer pulled the vehicle over beyond the tunnel’s toll plaza and Phelps failed to perform the standard field sobriety tests. He was cooperative throughout the process.<\/p>\n
This was Phelps’ second arrest on DUI-related charges, with the first coming in 2004 for which he received 18 months’ probation and a $250 fine.<\/p>\n
Phelps was also suspended for three months by USA Swimming in 2009 after a picture was posted in a British tabloid showing him with a marijuana pipe.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old Phelps has won a record 18 Olympic gold medals and 22 overall. He retired following the London Games in 2012, but made his return to competitive swimming this past April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Baltimore, MD (SportsNetwork.com) – Olympic swimming legend Michael Phelps disclosed Sunday he will “take some time away” from swimming in order to attend a program that will assist him as he focuses on himself. Phelps’ Twitter announcement came less than a week after he was arrested on a DUI charge. “The past few days have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[246],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-olympics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}