While the interview will not air until Thursday on OWN, an anonymous source has told the Associated Press that Lance Armstrong did confess to Oprah Winfrey that he did use Performance Enhancing Drugs to win the Tour de France.... I'll pause for minute so everyone can take off their Livestrong bracelets. Before the interview on Monday, Lance made an apology to his Livestrong charity earlier in the day. The confession comes after the USADA stripped Lance of his 7 Tour de France titles and banned him for life from the sport of cycling back in August of 2012.
One of the most inspiring men in the history of professional sports has admitted that he's essentially a fraud. To be fair, the entire sport of cycling does seem to have a huge doping problem but it certainly doesn't absolve Lance of his drug use and his efforts to conceal it. In the age of PED's, he was the one athlete we just couldn't see using drugs to win in a sport. When we first heard the rumors regarding Lance, we didn't want to believe it. As the evidence mounted, we looked everywhere for possible reasons not to believe it and even attacked those who said the reports were true while knowing deep inside we knew we were wrong. It wasn't until August leading up to yesterday that we saw the reality of all it: Armstrong did in fact use Performance Enhancing Drugs.
While the motives behind the interview aren't quite clear, it certainly marks the absolute low for Lance Armstrong's decline. He had not just become an icon to an entire sport, he had become a true inspiration to all people around the world, especially to those who face the horrible reality of cancer. To hear that the story of a cancer survivor winning one of the world's most grueling events 7 times be revealed as no more true than a fairy tale is heart wrenching.
Of all the athletes that have been connected to PED's or steroids, Lance Armstrong's drug use has certainly been the ultimate fall from grace.
Showing posts with label USADA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label USADA. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Friday, August 24, 2012
Lance Armstrong Stops Fighting Doping Allegations
There was never quite a story like Lance Armstrong. A man who had cancer that fought it and beat it then winning the Tour de France 7 times. The one blemish on that story was that occasionally there were outsiders saying that he was doping. The issue kept coming back and Lance Armstrong has always refuted time after time. This time however was one instance too far.
The US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) had been looking into Lance Armstrong and actually filed drug charges against him. Armstrong tried to fight these charges in a lawsuit saying that the USADA did not have jurisdiction but all attempts at that were thrown out by a judge. Armstrong decided against fighting through the USADA arbitration process and gave up. Armstrong is done fighting drug charges basically saying he has had enough. He once again declared his innocence, said the USADA was leading an "Unconstitutional Witch Hunt," and said he wanted to continue his work raising money for cancer research.
As a result of this, the USADA will now seek to strip Armstrong of his 7 Tour titles and will most likely be able to do so. They will also ban him from the sport for life.
So why give up now? It could be a number of things: he really is tired of fighting these accusations, he saw he wasn't going to win the case and just quit, he doesn't want to go broke fighting it, or he actually did cheat. I tend to think he did cheat but probably wouldn't swear on it. The sport of cycling is too corrupt and the recent winners of the Tour having their titles stripped away because of drug use makes me think that there can't be anyone that can win this thing 7 times in a row.
In the respect to cancer research, I hope that Lance Armstrong will be able to continue to help the cause. But in any other regard, he's still human.
P.S. I really don't care whether or not Lance took drugs because cycling is just so boring but why is everyone so eager to defend him? Where was this for Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds? The minute a baseball player's name is dropped in PED use, everyone assumes guilt immediately. Why not with Lance? Why must we hold Lance Armstrong as infallible?
The US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) had been looking into Lance Armstrong and actually filed drug charges against him. Armstrong tried to fight these charges in a lawsuit saying that the USADA did not have jurisdiction but all attempts at that were thrown out by a judge. Armstrong decided against fighting through the USADA arbitration process and gave up. Armstrong is done fighting drug charges basically saying he has had enough. He once again declared his innocence, said the USADA was leading an "Unconstitutional Witch Hunt," and said he wanted to continue his work raising money for cancer research.
As a result of this, the USADA will now seek to strip Armstrong of his 7 Tour titles and will most likely be able to do so. They will also ban him from the sport for life.
So why give up now? It could be a number of things: he really is tired of fighting these accusations, he saw he wasn't going to win the case and just quit, he doesn't want to go broke fighting it, or he actually did cheat. I tend to think he did cheat but probably wouldn't swear on it. The sport of cycling is too corrupt and the recent winners of the Tour having their titles stripped away because of drug use makes me think that there can't be anyone that can win this thing 7 times in a row.
In the respect to cancer research, I hope that Lance Armstrong will be able to continue to help the cause. But in any other regard, he's still human.
P.S. I really don't care whether or not Lance took drugs because cycling is just so boring but why is everyone so eager to defend him? Where was this for Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds? The minute a baseball player's name is dropped in PED use, everyone assumes guilt immediately. Why not with Lance? Why must we hold Lance Armstrong as infallible?
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