Lance Armstrong seemed to be a true American hero. He was the greatest road racing cyclist the U.S. ever produced. As a youngster in Texas he was a competitive swimmer and a triathlon champion before age 19. As a result of his triathlon success, he joined the Motorola Racing team and became a professional cyclist. At the age of 25 he was diagnosed with stage three testicular cancer. The cancer spread into his lungs, abdomen, and brain. After an operation to remove the diseased testicle, he was told he had a less then 40 percent chance of survival. Armstrong rejected traditional treatment and came to the IU Medical Center in Indianapolis for what was then a revolutionary treatment regimen under Dr. Craig Nichols using a procedure pioneered by Dr. Lawrence Einhore. IU Professor of Neurosurgery Dr. Scott Shapiro successfully removed the tumors in his brain. In February of 1997 he was declared cancer free. He had won a victory over the dread disease and was truly an inspiration to all cancer patients.
Lance is best known for his seven straight victories in the Tour de France, the world’s most prestigious cycling event. Of course, he was victorious in many other cycling events but it was his seven Tour de France titles that cemented his reputation as the world’s foremost racing cyclist. These victories also served to incite the French who seemed to howl in frustration at being beaten at their own game. The first rumors that Lance Armstrong was doping himself with performance-enhancing drugs started surfacing about this time. To Lance’s many admirers these rumors were just unfounded slander by the jealous French losers.
Meanwhile Lance was winning more and more races. He was also involved in other sporting events. He drove the pace car in the 2006 Indianapolis 500 mile race. He began entering triathlons again and even ran in the New York Marathon in 2006, 2007 and 2008. He ran in the Boston Marathon in 2008 and finished in the top 500. His charity work was well known with Livestrong and Athletes for Hope among the numerous charitable organizations he has been involved with.
However, the doping allegations not only would not go away they seemed to increase. His relationship with Dr. Michele Ferrari, an Italian doctor whose field was sports medicine was investigated. Dr. Ferrari has been banned from contact with professional athletes because he prescribed banned medical supplements to them. Armstrong has been accused of secretly meeting Ferrari for injections of the banned substances — a charge he vehemently denied.
In 2004 a book called La Confidential was published. In the book, several teammates of Armstrong claimed that all the U.S. cyclists, including Armstrong, used performance-enhancing drugs. Lance Armstrong successfully sued the London Sunday Times over an article they printed which repeated the allegations. Over the last several years there have been numerous investigations into the charges. Lance Armstrong maintained his innocence and it was announced in all but one case that there was not enough evidence to support the charges. A two year Federal investigation was dropped in February of 2012. The reasons for the dismissal were not fully clear.
In June of 2012, Armstrong was found guilty of doping and drug trafficking by the United States Anti-Doping Agency based on blood samples and testimony from teammates and key acquaintances and was banned for life from participating in any sports activities sanctioned by the USADA. In January of this year Armstrong finally admitted to Oprah Winfrey on national television that he had indeed, been doping himself with performance-enhancing drugs over all the years of his professional career. As a result of this, he is being sued to return the over $7 million he won, all the hardware, the loss of his endorsements, and his business associations. He is also under Federal investigation for obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and intimidation.
Armstrong certainly is not the first athlete to be involved in scandal, but his denials over an almost 15 year period and his attacks on people, who it turns out were telling the truth, has made it impossible for anyone to just forget what he has done or overlook it as just one of those “boys will be boys” things. All the good that Lance Armstrong has done, all the success that he has legitimately accomplished has washed away in a sea of lies and corruption. Instead of being the hero he could have been, he has become a pariah and even a joke. And that is the true tragedy of Lance Armstrong.
snicewanger@yahoo.com