What do we make of the inspirational Lance Armstrong now?
The great Lance Armstrong was once an American hero. Question is, is he still? (AP photo)
Lance Armstrong was more than a guy on a bike. Indeed, he titled his as-told-to autobiography, “It’s Not About the Bike.” And he wasn’t just a guy who had cancer and lived to tell the tale. He was an inspiration, a role model, an object lesson regarding the power of the human will.
He beat testicular cancer and didn’t just go on with his life. He became bigger than life. He won the Tour de France seven years running. He was named Sports Illustrated’s 2002 sportsman of the year and took multiple ESPYs as the male athlete of the year. Above and beyond all that, he was the guy who gave us the yellow bracelets, the ones bearing the name of his foundation — Livestrong.
And now he stands revealed as … what? A craven cheat? The hypocrite of all hypocrites? The guy who swore his innocence right up until the point where he decided to stop swearing?
“I am … finished with this nonsense,” was Armstrong’s rationale for dropping his fight against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which took his words as an admission of guilt and moved to strip him of those seven Tour de France titles. (Though the International Cycling Union is waiting for further information to take action.) The USADA has vacated, to invoke the college sports word, everything Armstrong achieved in his sport from 1998 on.
And we’re left to do … what? To recall all the good will and admiration we directed toward Lance Armstrong all these years? To feel cheated ourselves? To feel — diving deeper here — that this beacon of hope actually was a manifestation of everything we have hoped against hope isn’t true? That the games aren’t rigged, that sports are indeed a measure of character, that the bad guys don’t always (or ever) win?
If we’d been honest with ourselves, we might have wondered if the Livestrong story was the stirring saga it appeared to be. Armstrong was under suspicion even as he was winning those Tours. (This being cycling, everybody is under suspicion.) He would dispute every allegation, but the weight of the whispers began to give some among us pause. But not, I would suggest, the masses.
Most of us still saw Armstrong as a hero. He had cancer and still he became the world’s greatest cyclist. That was the more gripping narrative, and also the more palatable. Reality, alas, tends to get complicated.
Armstrong insists that he has admitted no wrongdoing, that he has simply chosen not to keep fighting the USADA. In a statement, he said this: “USADA cannot assert control of a professional international sport and attempt to strip my seven Tour de France titles. I know who won those seven Tours, my teammates know who won those seven Tours and everyone I competed against knows who won those seven Tours.”
And now we’re again scrambling for purchase on that slippery slope. Did Southern Cal win the 2004 BCS title or not? (The Trojans were stripped of the title owing to sanctions involving Reggie Bush, who has since returned his 2005 Heisman Trophy.) Who’s the real home run king — Hank Aaron or Barry Bonds? We have reason to suspect that Bonds didn’t generate all 762 homers on the up-and-up, but MLB kept letting him play, did it not? And, for further discussion: Should Mark McGwire be in the Hall of Fame? Should Rafael Palmeiro? Should Roger Clemens? And what of A-Rod, who might well hit 763 home runs?
This is a terrible time to be a sports fan. (Last week Melky Cabrera, this week Bartolo Colon and now Armstrong.) For all the joy that’s supposed to come from following these athletes and their trivial pursuits, we keep slamming into chilling truths, or half-truths, or truth laced so heavily with fiction that it’s not true at all. All any of us can know for sure about Lance Armstrong is that the first part of his stirring saga stands: He did beat cancer. Everything afterward is open to interpretation. Everything afterward could well have been a lie.
And all among us who have, over the years, sported those yellow bracelets? We could have shared his lie. Some feel-good story this is turning out to be, huh?
By Mark Bradley
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337 comments Add your comment
Satan smells
August 24th, 2012
12:04 pm
NO evidence means Not Guilty. This country spends too much time and tax money on trying to destroy sports heroes instead of passing a budget and keeping this country from going bankrupt. The Justice Dept sucks and so does thei boss and his boss. Vote them out.
Sid
August 24th, 2012
12:05 pm
:%s/reliable/easily\/consistently/
Ostrich Racer
August 24th, 2012
12:07 pm
The “passed tests” are not the point (although there have been rumors for years that some samples came up borderline). Marion Jones never failed one, either — that was the brilliance of the “designer steroid” program. Ultimately, it was other evidence that compelled her to admit what she had done.
And money is most certainly not the issue, in his decision not to go forward with arbitration. He’s got plenty of money, and better lawyers than the USADA (which is not a government agency, by the way). They just weren’t able to throw up enough smoke. It reminds me of one of David Letterman’s “Top Ten Reasons Tyson Bit Holyfield’s Ear”: “Because ‘disqualified’ sounds better than ‘Got his ass kicked all over the ring.’”
Pangloss
August 24th, 2012
12:08 pm
How can the USADA take away Tour de France titles? They have no jurisdiction. That would be like David Stern taking away USA Basketball’s gold medals.
Hillbilly D
August 24th, 2012
12:09 pm
Things aren’t always what they seem. C’est la vie.
Brian
August 24th, 2012
12:10 pm
Tour de France Winners, 1991 on…
1991 – 1995 Miguel Indurain Personal Doctor Guilty of Doping, 2004
1996 Bjarne Riis Admitted Doping, 2007
1997 Jan Ullrich Banned for Doping, 2012
1998 Marco Pantini Expelled for Doping, 1999
1999 – 2005 Lance Armstrong Wins Voided for Doping, 2012
2006 Floyd Landis Disqualified for Doping, 2006
2007 Alberto Contador Lost 3rd Tour Title for Doping, 2012
2008 Carlos Sastre Not yet caught
2009 Alberto Contador Lost 3rd Tour Title for Doping, 2012
2010 Alberto Contador Lost 3rd Tour Title for Doping, 2012
2011 Cadel Evans Not yet caught
2012 Bradley Wiggins Not yet caught
Matt Winkeljohn
August 24th, 2012
12:11 pm
As you point out, we’re all — as is Armstrong and for that matter the entire sport of cycling among so many other sports — on a slippery slope.
I can’t make up my mind where I stand other than to be saddened, and a large part of that is because much as baseball kept letting Barry Bonds play, Armstrong appeared to be playing by the rules at the time; he never tested positive for anything banned by his sport at the time.
Were he subject then to testing available now, the results might well have been different. But that seems a moot point for anything but a move to debate on theoretical grounds. Hell, if you could go back and test blood and DNA samples for long dead baseball and football players the findings would likely create a firestorm. It’s no secret that back in the day a variety of “uppers” were standard consumption by most athletes.
This is miserable. As a latent cyclist, I truly enjoyed all the Armstrong accomplished on the bike, and admired so much else that he did and has continued to do off of it.
Now, there is no real fair and level way to judge him, nor will there ever be. There can be no completely clear context. So many of the cyclists he routinely beat, after all, were doping as well. Many of them were caught at the time, others later, some not at all only to remain under suspicion.
A mess all the way around, and Armstrong and his family and friends are not the only ones left to suffer.
are you kidding me......
August 24th, 2012
12:13 pm
What is the worse for a cancer survivor…..STRESS….if I were Lance…I would refuse to participate in this mess anymore, too!!! Go on, live his life and raise his kids. There will always be haters!!
Huh?
August 24th, 2012
12:17 pm
Mark – What does “scrambling for purchase” mean?
Mr. Dawg
August 24th, 2012
12:18 pm
The NCAA vacated USC’s title because of major recruiting violations involving Reggie Bush that included receiving cash, travel expenses a car and a HOUSE among other things. Reggie Bush chose to attend USC with those incentives. To disput that lacks common sense. If Bush had played for another school, it stands to reason that USC is not as good as they were. Rather than be objective about whether or not they would win with or without him, the NCAA penalized them for these very specific violations. Simply put, USC cheated. If you cheat to win, in any sport,the win doesn’t count. Now when you think about it, In spite of all the glory and recognition USC gets, they haven’t won a Football Championship since they split with Alabama in 1979. Since then the AP poll has excluded itself from the recognized BCS Championship and therefore is just a writer’s poll like any other and is unofficial. Funny, the AP pulls out of BCS because they were in favor of a playoff as opposed to a poll, yet the put together there own poll!! Are they going to continue to put out their own poll – particular one that may contradict the BCS – now that there is going to be a playoff?
Oil my chain please
August 24th, 2012
12:19 pm
As Midnight Oil once sang, “It’s better to die on your feet than live on your knees.” He’s got way enough money to hire lawyers and fight the accusations. Gotta conclude he’s guilty. Unfortunately.
bob
August 24th, 2012
12:19 pm
streets all over the US will be littered with rubber wrist bands
Pete
August 24th, 2012
12:19 pm
Lance Armstrong passed the tests that were given at the time, so that should be the end of the story. If it turns out in hindsight that the technology or procedures were inadequate, then let’s improve them. I agree with other comments here, all of the effort and money spent by USADA, Congress and others to pursue these athletes could be better spent on better testing technology. And Congress, well, that’s another story. They can’t solve real problems, so they have their fun going after Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, et al.
Hank Is The Man
August 24th, 2012
12:20 pm
Can these same guys strip Barry Bonds of his records? Or at least depose Selig for ruining baseball by his tacit allowance of steroids for so long.
Cyclist support
August 24th, 2012
12:20 pm
Agreed, Satan smells. NO positive tests means NOT guilty. Witch hunt… Sad.
luadgs
August 24th, 2012
12:20 pm
This is all Bush’s fault
bowman
August 24th, 2012
12:22 pm
USADA currently receives $9 million of government funding as part of its $15 million annual budget, according to Cycling News (July 17, 2012). Not sure how many of those tax dollars were mine, but I want a refund. The clowns at the USADA are supposed to be on the lookout for U.S. athletes in the Olympics who might be using performance enhancing drugs which, of course, has nothing to do with Lance Armstrong or the Tour de France. This is all clearly a vendetta on somebody’s part at the USADA – somebody who’s salary is, no doubt, enormous. (Over the past four years, USADA’s Travis Tygart has been paid more than $1.2 million in compensation and $100,000 in bonuses.) If the Federal Government has an extra $9 million to throw around these days, which seems pretty unbelievable, lets use it for something important… something like cancer research.
Appalachia Brave
August 24th, 2012
12:23 pm
PROVE IT! Where’s the PROOF? Enough said…..
Kevin
August 24th, 2012
12:25 pm
The real story here is the thuggery of the USADA.
Son of Sammy Davis Jr, Jr
August 24th, 2012
12:28 pm
Tested over 500 times and never a positive drug test?
Let me know when they have a postive test.
Taipei Personality
August 24th, 2012
12:32 pm
Kudos to Nike for sticking with him, and believing in the truly American concept of “innocent until proven guilty in a court of law“.
Livestrong supporter
August 24th, 2012
12:33 pm
I just don’t understand this whole procedure – if he passed tests, why the witch hunt – what is this proving? If all these dopers in the cycling world have been found positive for drugs year after year – this sport is rigged and should be shut down. Lance being innocent is not good enough for any of these agencies. Why is it so hard to believe the man is an excellent cyclist? Do the French have a mole in the USADA that just want another American stripped of titles earned in another country? This is absolutely ridiculous. I am sure he is exhausted with the fight, and I do not believe it is any admission of guilt.
joe smoe
August 24th, 2012
12:33 pm
It’s like WWF having a witch hunt for steroids… further the fact that the hunt is happening so many years later after the fact is a joke. It continues to prove the sport is nothing more then who doesn’t get caught first. I for one am glad to see Lance move on from this legal game.that eats up the legal systems time and more importantly money. The people saying I told you so, after so many years would have still doubted him even if he did win the case… so what was to be really won anyways. Ride into the sunset Lance. You finished a Tour de Dope, something I will never be strong enough to ever do… doping or not.
Jenna
August 24th, 2012
12:33 pm
I am not convinced Lance did anything wrong. I don’t think it’s been definitively proven. So I still see him as a tremendous athlete and a great human being. I will continue to think this until he is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. And that isn’t going to happen, I’m pretty sure.
It’s stories like this one that only serves to kick a man when he’s down – akin to pouring gasoline on a wildfire and standing back watching it burn with smug satisfaction that you’ve done your journalistic duty. Uh huh.
I also don’t blame him for stopping this witch hunt and moving on with his life. How easy it is for some folks to judge others while they live in quiet anonymity and don’t have to deal with all the crap heaped upon our athletes. Do some deserve the bad rap? Sure enough. But when it’s so questionable as to guilt or innocence, as in Lance Armstrong’s case, why can’t the print media be fair and equitable? No, being sensationalistic and spreading half truths, inuendos and wild speculation gets more attention. That’s nothing short of shameful.
WhoCares?
August 24th, 2012
12:34 pm
Sad. Lance was a fraud. A phoney. Now he’s a disgrace.
WhoCares?
August 24th, 2012
12:35 pm
He’s not a great athlete. He did what he did with the help of drugs. He’s not a great human being. He used his deceit to make himself appear better than he was. Shame!
confused
August 24th, 2012
12:36 pm
Speculations + political BS + envy = Losers. He NEVER failed the test. He NEVER failed hundreds of them. The French tried EVERY, and ANY possibility to frame him, but THEY FAILED. They all failed all the time. He beat cancer, he beat the entire world on this grueling course. Yes, he had support of his entire team, but still, he earned his win 7times. Landis, and others failed right away (Landis said he’d had whiskey after the race) – LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!. Grueling preparations, training, discipline, lifestyle. THAT is what it takes to be a champion. He got tired of all this BS. No blame..
jtfalcfan
August 24th, 2012
12:36 pm
If one cyclist is doping then beats an entire pack of cyclists who are also doping, then isn’t he still better than the rest?
Or is there a question of semantics and who has the best artificial advantage?
fayncdawg
August 24th, 2012
12:37 pm
The playing field was level. Everybody who has done well on the Tour de Farce has had PED allegations. And all those rat ##s snitches simply didn’t work diligently enough to beat a man who fought back from the brink of death to become the greatest cyclist in history. The fact that the USADA is stripping Armstrong of his accolades in a sport that is saturated with PED issues worst than baseball is ludicrus. The USADA should never take the word of anybody who has been alleged of doing PEDs to bring down anybody!
The Man
August 24th, 2012
12:38 pm
You know why people use steriods? They work. Professional sports are for entertainment. Why are athletes held to much higher standards than other entertainers? Actors/actresses are allowed to have surgery to enhance their looks. Models are always airbrushed. Why spend so much time chacing these so called cheaters? We have much, much bigger problems to worry about.
BehindEnemyLines
August 24th, 2012
12:38 pm
The unilateral action of the USADA changes nothing as far as I’m concerned. They had little to no credibility left after engaging in their publicity seeking witch hunt, they still have none. I’m not a particularly big fan of LA, I find his personality to be offputting too often for that, but he’s got more credibility in his pinkie that his attackers.
Righteous Mark
August 24th, 2012
12:40 pm
One day, maybe we will all be as righteous as you, Mark. Until then, I guess we have to listen to all the other righteous folk passing a guilty judgement on a man – even though they have no evidence. This is a classic witch hunt.
GT forever
August 24th, 2012
12:41 pm
Timee will determine his guilt or innocense. How many people who believed that O J Simpson was innocent still believe he is innocent? Just as there are substances that can be rubbed on hour hands that can cause swelling of your hands yo enable his presecuters to state-”If the glove don’t fit, you must acquit”, I am sure there are ways to pass one or several drug tests. However the probablitlty of passing that many sequentially is extremely small. There are only two conclusions that a logical person can comclude, either the tests are flawed or Mr. Armstrong is innocent. How many innocent people have been convicted of a crime only to be exonerated by DNA evidence?
NATS
August 24th, 2012
12:42 pm
Yet another waste of my hard earned money.
FN_Jerk
August 24th, 2012
12:43 pm
@LanceArmstrong – Great call! You do not have to FN prove anything to anyone any longer. Let them all FN die wondering…
The Carnivore
August 24th, 2012
12:44 pm
It is amazing that there are still so many people in denial in this board, even today. He started doping in 1993, continued unabated for the next 15 years, and was seen doping multiple times every year he competed in the Tour de France (whether he won or not). Nearly all of his teammates (and the team doctor) were caught redhanded themselves and implicated Lance when confronted.
Let me tell you a little secret that should be obvious. It is impossible for human beings to average 32-33 miles per hour on a bike over any long distance, much less in the mountains, without some heavy duty doping. The very best clean riders are doing well if they can maintain 27-28 mph on flat ground.
There is a difference between being guilty and getting caught. How often do you speed in a car? All the time. How often do you get caught speeding? Hardly ever, less than 1 in 100 times. The same is true with doping. It has been very obvious that Lance has been doping since the 1990s, but for some reason most of you choose to deny. I don’t blame him. I do blame all of you for sticking your collective heads in the sand and allowing an environment in which he could get away with it for so long.
It's about time
August 24th, 2012
12:46 pm
Lance Armstrong isn’t even the most tested US cyclist with the last name “Armstrong.”
Lance fully got what he deserved. Finally.
DB
August 24th, 2012
12:48 pm
I can’t say that I blame him — the man has declared his innocence for over a decade, has never failed a drug test, and has spent millions of his own money to defend himself from a witchhunt. I, too, would say “Screw you — I don’t have to prove a goddamn thing to you.”
HE knows what his accomplishments are. The world knows what he did. This agency has gone after Lance because, to pull him down would give them some sort of weird credibility. What in the hell does a government agency have to do with performance enhancement in sports? Is this what we are reduced to? To bring down athletic heroes who have actually triumphed over not only sport, but adversity, because we can’t bear to have people who are better than we are or can hope to be among us?
He has not confessed to anything. He has simply said, “I’m not putting myself and my family thru this any more.” It’s the classic, “When did you stop beating your wife?” conundrum. This whole thing makes me think less of the USADA, not Lance Armstrong.
Jaded
August 24th, 2012
12:51 pm
I wonder if all this would just “go away” if he donated $50 or $100k to the Obama campaign?
The USADA is busy wasting OUR tax dollars on a witchhunt. Which one of you is going to be the next victim?
DB
August 24th, 2012
12:53 pm
@The Carnivore: Yeah, and the 4 minute miles was once considered to be unreachable . . .
Mako
August 24th, 2012
12:53 pm
The only guys not juiced in the Tour’s are the riders at the very rear…because they don’t have the talent to run up front even on juice! What’s so funny is how few people the USADA has ever really caught for the amount of money they receive and then they have to beg, threaten and cajole people to turn on each other because they can’t prove much with the science. Oh well, at least he was the best cheater ever in the Tour….Live Long!
Arthur Redding, Jr.
August 24th, 2012
12:54 pm
OK–so one guy keeps changing his screen name and posting basically the same anti-USADA comments. . . . Grow up and get a job.
Ken Stallings
August 24th, 2012
12:54 pm
I have to say, Lance Armstrong makes a very strong case that he is being unfairly treated by USADA. I find it noteworthy that today it was first announced that serious federal charges were dropped against Floyd Landis — charges that could have landed him in federal prison for many years. I cannot help but believe that there is a link between his cooperation with USADA and these now dropped charges.
USADA is a private company that receives substantial tax revenues for its operations. Congress provided authorization for USADA to act as the core World Anti-Doping Agency representative for Olympic Sports programs in the US. However, the Tour de France is not an Olympic Sport, and so Armstrong’s statements about USADA having no actual jurisdiction over him is very true. At best, they have a tacit association since UCI is a signatory of WADA, but UCI is certified by WADA to conduct their own anti-doping testing, certification, and punishments. Armstrong passed all of UCI’s tests.
It seems to me that the term witchunt in this case has merit. Such statements have been used in the past by athletes who were caught doping. However, this is the first time I know of where an athlete was never caught doping and yet was still aggressively pursued by an agency with questionable jurisdiction. This situation seems to stand out.
Franky, to me Travis Tygart appears to be a man motivated by personal zeal, someone who was stymied in a previous effort and has been relentless in personal vendetta ever since. I don’t even have a personal stake in this situation, but feel compelled by a sense of objectivity and fairness to comment. Tygart seems to me to be a real-world personification of Captain Ahab with Armstrong as the Moby Dick.
It would not surprise me to see the International Cycling Union (UCI) wait for USADA’s formal report, and then conclude that the USADA charges are without merit and have UCI formally refuse to cooperate. I suspect that this is something Armstrong feels is going to happen and is why he was willing to stop cooperation with USADA’s actions.
If that happens, then perhaps it would be time for Congress to investigate USADA and Travis Tygart and perhaps strip all tax revenues from them. To my way of thinking, Lance Armstrong was the single most frequently tested athlete in the world for over two decades. By all accounts he passed every single test, including one where a slight trace was discovered, but was immediately explained by a commonly used skin ointment for saddle sores. If the people responsible for the sport accepted that explanation (which they did), then I see no reason for some other agency or person decades later to step in and say otherwise.
Armstrong agreed to have his privacy abridged in ways few people would ever agree to. For nearly 25 years, he cooperated with various agencies knocking on his door at home and in hotel rooms demanding immediate blood and urine samples — all of which he provided and all of which passed scrutiny. During this time, legions of other cyclists were being busted on failed tests. Armstrong stood apart as the one who was never busted. To me, that says a lot — a lot more than unsubstantiated rumors of witnesses, with two confirmed witnesses who themselves were busted by the same tests Armstrong always passed.
It seems like a witchunt to me!
due process
August 24th, 2012
12:54 pm
this process was the process followed by tyrannical regimes where they are investigator, judge, jury and executioner. There was no due process here. The same group that “investigated” also “executed”. Their verdict was based on hearsay not evidence. They convicted Armstrong on the basis of what others said, in spite of the fact he never failed a drug test. This is not “justice”, it’s the opposite, injustice. Our country is better than to convict a man in such a manner.
Spartacus
August 24th, 2012
12:58 pm
After beating cancer, after returning to win the Tour (with PED help)
He ran out on his wife and family who stood with him thru his cancer ordeal, he came out and publicly started dating a 19 year old one of the Olsen twins!!!
That’s all you need to know about this piece of Sh!t…
WhoCares?
August 24th, 2012
1:00 pm
Did drug cheat actually have testicular cancer, or did he lie about that too?
abby normal
August 24th, 2012
1:01 pm
So Armstrong and Ben Johnson and Marion Jones are stripped of their victories and banned, yet Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire will probably end up in the HOF. Makes no sense at all.
Jim
August 24th, 2012
1:03 pm
So, why would the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency be motivated to discredit Armstrong?
"Chef" Tim Dix
August 24th, 2012
1:06 pm
The one thing we can all agree on in this matter is that all things french are inferior.
The Carnivore
August 24th, 2012
1:06 pm
Marion Barry (former mayor of DC) was caught on video smoking and snorting crack cocaine with a hooker while mayor. He was subsequently RE-ELECTED by DC voters.
I am not sure who has less sense – DC voters or most of you on this board.