Michael Phelps Suspended Six Months By USA Swimming For Drunk Driving Incident

Just a few months after returning to the blue, Michael Phelps is being pulled back in.

The 18-time Olympic gold medalist record holder was suspended by USA Swimming for six months which will result to his withdrawal from the swimming world championships next year. The suspension is a result of his driving under the influence incident September 30. He was charged with reckless driving as manifested by his excessive speed and frequent lane changing in Interstate 95. He was hailed and registered 0.14 alcohol level, way above the legal limit of 0.8.

Due to the suspension, he will forfeit funding from the national governing body and will also be prohibited from participating in any sanction swimming meets until Apr. 6, 2015 but he will be allowed to train with his North Baltimore club. According to Yahoo Sports, the 29-year-old swimmer has voluntarily entered a six-week rehabilitation program that will keep him in his hometown in Baltimore. His representatives also relayed that Phelps accepts the sanctions of swimming's governing body.

"Michael accepts USA Swimming's sanctions,'' according to a statement from his representatives at Octagon. ''He has apologized for his actions and, as he shared yesterday, is taking steps to address them.''

The USA Swimming program stressed in a statement that it is adhering in its Code of Conduct in the levying of the suspension to Phelps. USA Swimming Director Chuck Wieglus acknowledged that Phelps made a serious infraction that necessitated the sanctions. While he lauded Phelp's efforts to correct his ways, the organization is firm in its policy to punish him.

Part of the sanction is his exclusion from the roster for the world championships in Russia next year. Phelps has been targeting the said competition as a spring board for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. It is unclear how much the suspension will deal to that scenario but still, the exclusion from the games next year is a heavy blow to the returning controversial swimmer. Phelps' return was successful in September's Pan Pacific meet where he won three gold medals and two silver medals.

This is not the first time that the illustrious swimmer has been embroiled in controversy. In 2004, he was also arrested on DUI charges on Maryland's eastern Shores just after participating in the Atlanta Olympics, making this his second arrest on DUI charges. In 2009, he again made headlines as photgraphs of him holding a marijuana pipe made the rounds of social media.