By Ralph Paulk, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, September 27, 2009

Michael Phelps, who shattered seven world records en route to winning a record eight gold medals in the 2008 Beijing Games, was greeted Saturday morning by an estimated 600 fans during the opening of a new prototype GNC store at Ross Park Mall.

Nearly 200 fans positioned themselves at the store’s front entrance more than two hours before Phelps arrived to help promote a sports drink, PureSport. Phelps, a 14-time gold medalist, signed autographs for nearly two hours.

“With my workout program, I have to be at peace and have all the nutrients in my body,” Phelps said. “I had (PureSport) right after every race at the Olympics, then moved on to the next race and was ready to go.”

Phelps, too, continued to polish an image tarnished by a photo that showed him smoking from a marijuana pipe. The fallout from that incident led to USA Swimming suspending him for three months and it caused a major sponsor, Kellogg, to abandon him shortly after he appeared on the cover of its Corn Flakes box.

“Everybody goes through some really tough times in their lives, and I think it depends on how you battle back from those,” Phelps said. “Nothing comes easy, and the harder you work the harder it gets.”

PureSport, though, refused to sever its relationship with Phelps. They committed to honoring a deal he signed with PureSport prior to the Beijing Games.

“We made the deal with Michael eight months before the Beijing Olympics,” said PureSport CEO Michael Humphrey. “He trained with the products for about a year before he went to the Olympics.

“We never even thought about severing our ties with Michael. My thing with Michael is that he has to be smart about the decisions he makes and we’ll be smart about the decisions we make.”

The developers of PureSport consulted with Phelps’ coach Bob Bowman in hopes of creating a sports drink specifically designed for the U.S. Olympic swim team before the company was formalized.

“It’s great having Michael using our product,” Humphrey said, “but you don’t have to be an Olympic athlete to train and feel better.”