"Say it ain't so, Lance!" Many fans of the famed biker -- those who aren't still delusional -- are now coming to grips with the very real probability that their hero, Mr. Lance Armstrong, didn't win those 7 Tour de France races fair and square. He cheated. He used drugs. As Nike says, the evidence is "seemingly insurmountable."
I've never been a fan of Lance. Well, not since, oh, about 3 years ago, when it became obvious that he was an arrogant liar. He deserved to be dropped by Nike and he deserves to leave the Livestrong cancer charity in shame. Lance isn't so unlikable because he drugged, but because he lied about it. Even now, he's made no public statement admitting his wrongdoing.
More from The Stir: Lance Armstrong Stripped of All 7 Tour de France Titles But Will That Really Stop Doping? (VIDEO)
Drugging in cycling and other sports is a sad reality. Our young athletes enter a culture of drugging and the message is that they must do the same to win. Drug, and have a shot at winning; don't, and be mediocre (or worse -- don't even make the team). They tell themselves they're doing it to level the playing field. If everyone is drugging, it's still a fair contest. They don't want to give up their chance at winning by not doping. At the same time, they have to live with the ugly truth that they're not winning entirely on their own. They're cheating. They're lying. And yet, one can understand why these athletes do what they do. Ultimately, we've got to get doping out of sports. We owe that to the athletes. We owe it to the fans. We owe it to our children.
Lance Armstrong has had many opportunities to admit his own doping. Instead, he's arrogantly pointed fingers, ruined lives, and acted so very high and mighty. And that makes him a loser. A big, fat loser.
Lance still has a chance to come forward, admit what he's done and become part of the solution. He could do great things -- speak out about drugging in sports, help clean up the system, start an organization to train young bicyclists and teach them how to win without drugs. Lance could use this opportunity to show he is a true leader. A real winner.
But will he?
Image via AngusKingston/Flickr
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Comments 9
Took the words right out of my mouth, billsfan.
I don't like to see a man's life be subject to ruin and downfall but I can't help but think he invited a lot of it on himself, and that he WILL be shown eventually for what he truly is. A scum bag who needs a major character overhaul.
The problem is that you can't really have sports without the competition and #1 attitude. We've all seen what 'participation ribbons' do, where everyone is a 'winner' just for showing up and trying. Sure, it might make it more fun but then it's not really a sport...it's just a bunch of people rolling and tossing balls around or whatever.
PEDs permiate every single sport from tennis to cycling to MMA. As long as we want 'champions' and we want to see people genuinely compete [aggressively] then you're going to have a good majority of them doing whatever they have to (aka: drugs) to continue to win.
The focus is completely on winning and not about how someone got there anymore. The focus on sports used to often be the grueling training and the win was just the icing on the cake. People wanted to see body builders in the gyms and runners blazing up and down mountains and jogging around the city. Now nobody cares. They only want flashy ceremonies and to turn on their TVs at podium time.
Claire, why do you feel that disallowing them is silly? It gives athletes a clear, scientifically proven advantage. Those using steroids can train harder and longer pre-competition and have a clear leg-up in competition in terms of stamina and strength. And while many do use them, not all use them and thus I think it's unfair to have a roided out person competing against someone that trained naturally.
One could also say that sports is about pushing the body's NATURAL limits. Indeed the Olympics entire origin was based in the idea of the best of the natural body to the point where they competed nude. That attitude of amazing natural feats is lost if anyone can do it just by injecting some shots. Who really cares which drug user runs faster? Just get the slower ones to pop more roids and they'll catch up.
Not to mention that athletes are role models especially for kids and get tons of sponserships and I'm not sure I want to listen to some roidhead who basically cheated and drugged their way to the top talk about fairness, honesty, team building, sportsmanship, etc to kids and be a role model.
I don't see anything good about PEDs at all that would justify allowing them.
Also Robert, he did fail a couple tests. He of course blamed this on the cancer drugs but that may or may not be a cover and I believe someone else on another post pointed out that the drugs (steroids) he tested positive for are never even used in a single cancer drug anyway, so take that for what you will.
So now you just sort of judge when you have a couple positive steroid hits on one side and many many negative (clear) tests on the other...
Witch Hunt, COMPLETE waste of money!! Seriously there are people DYING because they do not have fresh water and people are talking about some who pedals a bike. The destruction of earth will be at the hands of humans. Sad that anyone even cares about tour le whatever