The most decorated Olympian in history.

The greatest swimmer to have touched water.

The role model who messed up once again.

Michael Phelps.

On Tuesday, Sept. 30, Phelps was arrested for Driving Under the Influence (DUI). The charges in which he was arrested upon did not stop after the DUI. Phelps was also charged for speeding and passing in a no passing zone.

This was not the first time Phelps made a mistake in his career.

In 2004, before competing in the Athens’ Olympics, Phelps was arrested at the age of 19 for his first DUI.

After the 2004 Olympics, things started to get cleared up for Phelps. The world was slowly falling in love with him and all of his feats in the Olympics.

At the Beijing games, in 2008, Phelps broke the record for the number of gold medals, granting him the title of the most decorated Olympian ever. He managed to entitle himself as a role model for many young swimmers across the world, until a picture was released.

In 2009, a picture of Phelps smoking marijuana was released from a British newspaper.

This shocked the world. The athlete everyone just watched make history gets caught smoking pot. As soon as everyone forgot about his first DUI, something else happened.

When does a preventable mistake become a repeated fault? When will athletes take on their role model status and stop messing up?

Not only Phelps, but professional athletes everywhere need to be more careful to protect their own health and safety, in addition to protecting their young followers.

Phelps entered himself in a six-week program in an attempt to become clean, once again.

Athletes commit crimes and get caught with illegal drugs all the time. There is one question: when will athletes think ahead of what the world will think if they choose to do irresponsible things?