There are some men whose path you do not cross

(excerpted from this article in the IHT after Michael Phelps won his first gold in Beijing)

Long before he had the likes of Ryan Lochte and Laszlo Cseh to inspire him, Michael Phelps was motivated by his tormenters. His mother, Debbie, remembered an 11-year-old Phelps emerging in tears from the locker room at Towson University during a swim meet because two boys from another team were making merciless fun of him.

Four years later, in 2000, after Phelps qualified for the United States Olympic team in the 200 butterfly, one of those boys came up to him in the stands at the Indiana University-Purdue University natatorium to congratulate him. As Debbie Phelps remembered recently, the kid said to Phelps, "Remember me? I swim with ..."

Phelps looked him in the eyes and said, "I don't seem to recall who you are." After the boy left, Debbie Phelps said she turned to her son and said, incredulous, "Michael, you really didn't remember him?" He told her: "Yes I did. But I was not going to give him that sense of satisfaction."

Vindication or Vindictiveness?

Hell, give me both.