You have to have been living under a rock for the last couple of decades to not know something about Lance Armstrong.
He’s the cyclist and endurance athlete extraordinaire, cancer survivor, founder of Livestrong Foundation, creator of those little yellow Livestrong bracelets (which, incidently have made over 325 million for the Livestrong Foundation), and the seven-time winner of the Tour de France.
Oh wait—now we can scratch that last one. As of last week, the USADA announced that it will be stripping Lance Armstrong of his seven Tour de France victories. (Query: If the title is taken away, does it still mean you didn’t kick the butt of the French countryside, the elements, and every other cyclist who competed in each of those seven Tours?) On August 24, 2012 the USADA issued a statement indicating that Armstrong was banned for life from all of its competitive cycling events and that he would be stripped of all titles (including the Tour de France titles) from August 1, 1998 through the present. Oh, and he has to give back the millions of dollars in prize money.
Who is the USADA and how can they do this?
The United States Anti-Doping Agency is a nonprofit agency that governs anti-doping programs in competitive sports, including cycling. It does the testing (in and out of competition), results management and adjudication of all things anti-doping. In June of 2012, after years of investigating Armstrong for doping, the USADA officially filed charges against him. The problem, from Armstrong’s perspective, was that he believed the USADA’s arbitration process was unfair and stacked against him. The U.S. Federal government had looked into pursuing criminal charges against Armstrong for years and in February of 2012 it dropped its pursuit of criminal charges, apparently because they did not have enough evidence to convict Armstrong. So how could the USADA proceed? In July of 2012, Armstrong filed suit in federal district court to ask that the USADA charges be thrown out, claiming the USADA lacks jurisdiction and that its process violated his due process rights.
On August 24, 2012, just days after the federal district court dismissed Armstrong’s lawsuit, saying that the USADA’s charges and process could proceed, Armstrong threw in his jersey. The cyclist who could conquer the mountains of France with barely a spike in his heart rate and who fought back from stage three testicular cancer that had spread to his brain, lungs and abdomen, was now giving up a decade plus long war that had been waged against him by the USADA and others accusing him of doping violations.
The masses are sharply and bitterly divided over whether Armstrong is a cheater, liar, and doper, or the unjustly accused victim of a witch hunt by the USADA. One need only look at the posts from individuals on Armstrong’s Facebook page to see just how bitterly divided people are over whether Armstrong was doping or not. Says one Facebook user: “F you doper. Keep your drugs and cheater’s mentality out of ultra endurance sports.” Says another Facebook user: “You will always be a cycling legend and an inspiration to cancer sufferers through Livestrong, and will always be a champion in my eyes.”
Why did Lance Armstrong give up?
So why did Armstrong—one of the world’s strongest and fittest men who has endured many a physical, emotional, and mental challenge in his lifetime—just give up? Was it because he really was doping and had run out of delay tactics and excuses, and knew the USADA’s arbitration process would expose him as the doper, liar, and cheater that many claim he is? Or was it because he truly couldn’t get a fair shake from the “witch hunt” that Armstrong and many cyclists say that the USADA had started against him in order to single him out and make an example of him? Or maybe it’s because as a cancer survivor with five active children, he realized that his emotional energy was better spent on things that truly matter?
Endurance athletes, Facebook fans, and bloggers can speculate about why Armstrong threw in his jersey. And we will never truly know why he gave up the fight or whether the doping allegations are true. But Armstrong himself knows. And, as Armstrong himself once said about his agnostic faith, “At the end of the day, if there was indeed some body or presence there to judge me, I hoped I would be judged on whether I lived a true life…” (from Lance Armstrong’s book, It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life).
Enough is Enough. Let’s let Armstrong move forward.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not necessarily those of Avvo.com.
11 comments
radziony
listen people: Jan Urlich the biggest Armstrong rival had been caught, and so many others. if you think he was able to crush the whole cycling world seven times in the row an be clean you my lovely friends are on drugs!!!! this is very sad story of pure greed!!! and showing the cancer struck people they can do what he's done is disgraceful. it's like listen to Marion Jones about how fast woman can run. Just a joke
Chris Bonjour
F@#K the USADA.... They just shot Secretariat
Kiwisteve
Technically Lance can still say he kicked the butt of the other cyclists in those tours that were doping (of which there have been proven many), they were on the same "level, drug enhanced" playing field has him...
Kiwisteve
No single athlete is bigger than the sport, Lance is finally finding this out...
GrittyIntegrity
I think it's a safe assumption that he did dope. Let's look at the facts: as many as 10 of his former teammates stated under oath that he doped (most of which also never tested positive themselves and presumably would not have a motive to indict Lance unless compelled to do so considering their testimony was tantamount to an admission of guilt on their part. Said testimony would also potentially subject them to some disciplinary action from USADA due to their guilt; that discipline has yet to be meted out, but surely will over the coming months. His connection to banned doping doctor Michele Ferrari (Ferrari has been banned in his home country of Italy for 10 years for blood doping athletes). His public actions toward cyclists that vocally supported clean cycling (Google Christophe Bassons and Filippo Simeoni) and the fact that six of his urine samples from his first Tour win contained chemical traces of the banned blood booster E.P.O. and another two visually contained evidence when tested by Michael Ashenden Ashendon was hired by the UCI (riders' union) to help develop a blood passport to establish a blood profile for each rider and who is highly respected in the anti-doping field. Ashenden helped develop the test for E.P.O. for the 2000 Sydney Olympic games. And, the fact that ALL as in A-L-L of his top competitors (specifically the top ten) in the Tours de France that he won also tested positive or have been implicated and/or sanction in another doping scandal. How do you beat competitors if undoped when the scientific consensus was that blood doping provided a substantial 10-15% increase in aerobic performance.
All that being said, Armstrong has done a lot for cancer research, raising millions and elevated the sport of cycling in this country to a level of popularity previously unseen and he has brought attention to the sport of triathlon over the last couple of years as he successfully competed in that discipline.
Bubba
Listen, the guy was doping. 10+ of his teammates testified to Grand Jury under oath.
Let him pay the just price- like giving back those 7 tainted yellow jerseys and let's move on with today's crop of clean and exciting riders. Check out Talansky, VanGarderen, etc. The world doesn't need a dirty cheat who made $millions off of it as it's roll model- cancer survivor or not.
Snarky Mark
I hope this is finally the unravelling of the USADA (fake non-gov. org.) and the whole dope scene in road bike sports. Go Lance, don't give them an inch!
Kiwisteve
Either it's the unravelling of the anti-doping testing organization OR the unravelling of the doping scene, it cant be both…without the testing org athletes will dope. Because the USADA has brought Lance's actions to light they are unravelling the doping scene...
I hate Lance
(Query: If the title is taken away, does it still mean you didn’t kick the butt of the French countryside, the elements, and every other cyclist who competed in each of those seven Tours?)
Um yes that is exactly what it means.
CactusTri
It's my understanding that the USADA does not have the authority to strip his Tour de France titles. The governing body for that race, UCI, has requested more information from USADA before they rule on that (
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-400_162-57499892/usada-officially-strips-7-tour-de-france-titles-from-lance-armstrong/)
casprd
The UCI isn't the governing body for the Tour de France. ASO is and the French Cycling Federation are. The TDF and many other races are run outside of the UCI's auspices as a result of the fall out from the "pro tour" effort that the UCI pushed. ASO and the French cycling federation can strip Armstrong and are already making motions that they may just do that.