Phelps’s jaw dropped. Bowman told him the visit to Sullivan’s had popped up on his Google alert, which he uses to keep track of what is written about Phelps. “Wherever you go,” Bowman reminded him, “it’s news.”

When Bowman found out about the incriminating photograph, taken at a private party at the University of South Carolina in November, he was furious. “That’s about as bad a judgment as you can use,” he said.

Bowman said he was not swayed by Phelps’s explanation that he believed he was among friends. He reminded Phelps that he could no longer be certain who had his back.

“Michael wants to know people and open up to them a little bit, but it just doesn’t work,” Bowman said. “You just have to approach everybody with skepticism, which I think is sad.”

Bowman scoffed at the idea that Phelps got off relatively easy. United States Swimming, the sport’s national governing body, suspended him for three months, based on circumstantial evidence, not a failed drug test.

“Why don’t you try to have everybody in the world know about one of your private moments that you’re embarrassed about,” Bowman said. “Can you imagine that anywhere you go in the world, everybody has talked about it and has an opinion on it? I think that’s a pretty high price to pay.”

Should it matter that Phelps earned tens of millions of dollars as a pitchman? With every contract he signed, he was essentially agreeing to embody America’s best image of itself — the can-do spirit, the purity of purpose, the noblesse oblige.

“Just because you make a lot of money, that doesn’t require you to be perfect 24 hours a day,” Bowman said. “That doesn’t automatically make you a superhero.”

Many times over the past few months, Debbie Phelps has wanted to scream, “Will you let my kid be human?” But that’s just it. The original master plan, while brilliant, made no provision for Michael’s being mortal.

This article, “Back in the pool, Phelps is mapping a new course,” first appeared in the New York Times.

MORE FROM SPORTS

Sports Section Front

Pujols a unanimous pick as repeat MVP winner Notre Dame AD says Clausen sucker punched Ohio St. rolls behind Turner’s 2nd triple-double   Wizards owner Pollin dies at age 85   Baylor star joins elite group of women dunkers USC, LSU, Miami alive for BCS at-large bids AP Source: Bills consider Shanahan for coach Pompei: Nothing's normal for NFL coaches — ‘it's all ball’ Cowboys TE Witten iffy with ankle injury Bucs demote defensive coordinator Bates Sports Section Front   Add Sports headlines to your news reader: