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Subscribe to RSSIn the wake of Lance Armstrong's admission to Oprah Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs, the World Anti-Doping Agency is telling the cyclist he must tell the truth under oath if he ever wants to return to competitive sports, and former friends and teammates agree. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.
The suspicions were there from the start. And so were the convincing denials.
In an early ad for Nike, Lance Armstrong met insinuations of doping head-on.
“This is my body and I can do whatever I want to it,” he says in the commercial, inspirational at the time but hollowly ironic now.
“I can push it, and study it, tweak it, listen to it,” he continues. “Everybody wants to know what I’m on? I’m on my bike, busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on?”
A YouTube video of Lance Armstrong's "What Are You On?" Nike commercial from 2001.
Armstrong’s astounding post-cancer comeback was still in its infancy when suggestions that he might not be clean surfaced with a report of steroids in his urine during his first Tour de France victory in 1999.
He rejected them with what would become the hallmarks of his many denials: a flash of anger, a complaint of persecution, a pointed reference to his status as a survivor.
“They say stress causes cancer," Armstrong said when confronted with the test result. "So if you want to avoid cancer, don't come to the Tour de France and wear the yellow jersey."
His explanation -- that saddle-sore cream had caused the trace positive -- apparently satisfied the sport’s governing body. The early whiff of scandal did not stop him from crossing the line on the Champs-Elysees that year – or the next six.
With each victory, Armstrong’s riches and popularity grew until it seemed like half the country had a yellow Livestrong charity bracelet dangling from their wrists.
In 2005, a Gallup poll found 79 percent of people questioned had a favorable opinion of him. He made $17.5 million in endorsements that year and was engaged to singer Sheryl Crow.
Questions about whether he was using performance enhancers had been mounting by the year: a 2000 probe into a report that a team staffer was caught disposing of drugs, a 2004 French book that alleged Armstrong juiced, the 2006 confessions of former teammates who admitted doping.
Armstrong always responded the same way, with unequivocal denials and threats of legal action.
“I have never doped,” he told Larry King in 2005, sounding exasperated at having to repeat himself.
In a 2007 interview, he played the cancer card. “I was on my death bed. You think I’m going to come back into a sport and say, 'OK, doctor, give me everything you got. I just want to go fast.' No way.”
He didn't dodge the accusations, he used them. His voiceover for a Nike ad during a 2009 comeback: "The critics say I'm arrogant. A doper. Washed up. A fraud. That I couldn't let it go. They can say whatever they want. I'm not back on my bike for them."
YouTube video of Lance Armstrong's 2009 "Driven" ad for Nike in which he notes that critics call him a "doper" and "a fraud."
There was no smoking-gun test result to refute him, and some of his critics were confessed liars.
A teammate’s wife who testified was dismissed as a harridan with a vendetta. Finger-pointing ex-teammate Floyd Landis was accused of “harassment.” Even a federal investigation was branded “un-American” by Armstrong’s lawyer.
The champion didn’t back down when the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency charged and suspended him in June, boasting that he had “passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one.”
'Witch hunt'
Even his one act of surrender – his August announcement that he would not fight the agency's charges – was tinged with defiance. The probe was a “witch hunt,” the claims mere “nonsense” and “enough is enough,” he said.
Armstrong’s sponsors were abandoning him, but he still had ardent defenders. In a Newsweek cover story, sports writer Buzz Bissinger declared the cyclist “a hero, one of the few we have left in a country virtually bereft of them.”
OWN via Getty Images
Lance Armstrong during his interview with Oprah Winfrey, which airs Thursday and Friday. The cyclist's historic run of Tour de France championships made headlines, as did his fall from grace after being stripped of the titles in 2012.
The tide of public opinion had clearly turned, though. A couple of weeks after USADA released its damning report on Oct. 10, a Seton Hall Sports Poll found only a third of the respondents had a positive opinion of Armstrong.
This week's confession to Oprah Winfrey may be a bid to recoup some of the goodwill he once enjoyed and salvage his legacy, but the Johnny-come-lately reversal could backfire. Those who continued to back Armstrong even as the evidence became harder to ignore are as likely to feel betrayal as sympathy.
Count Bissinger among them.
“He is an immoral, manipulative liar who doesn’t deserve a second more of anybody’s time,” he wrote on the Daily Beast this week, asking readers not to watch the interview that airs Thursday and Friday.
“Don’t continue to feed his insufferable ego. Don’t give him the satisfaction. Let him be what he has become: Unimportant and worthless.”
Tune in to TODAY Friday for an exclusive live interview with Livestrong CEO Doug Ulman.
Related:
Experts: Lance Armstrong confession could cost him tens of millions
Armstrong's cancer-fighter legacy still inspires
The players in the Lance Armstrong scandal
Leave a Comment:
Lance who???
I agree with you. It is time simply to forget him and his career.
Lance Armstrong. A human being.
That's right- they all say they were doing it then. That makes it pretty hard to refrain when the bar was automatically higher- and the expectation of doping was there.
I think people should tend to their own backyards, unless they can say theirs is perfect.
He knew he was going to be tested and if he felt there was no chance of competing without drugs, he should have dropped out of the games.... "Oh yeah" he collected those funds so he was obligated.... =^0
liar, cheat. this is the first and last time i comment on this man.
LieStrong CheatStrong StealStrong ShameStrong.
no one fell for it, they just think this whole thing is low...I mean who ever gave that much care over bike riding up and down hills, now he just made it look as stupid as it is, the entire cycling this is gross...nasty pants should have done the whole sport in years ago.
NO ONE CARES ABOUT TOUR DE FAKES, all of them....every last one
Make a big something out of this but they don't worry when obama does it everyday to america. Unbelievable what up sets you people. Lance lied, shame on him. Obama a pathological liar, what a great guy.
Maybe they should give him a gold medal for lying.
i hope all the second place finisher's sue his sorry ass...that one way sob...cost a lot of people endorsement money...
Come on people, are any of you really naive enough to not realize that this goes on in EVERY COMPETITIVE SPORT? Let me repeat that EVERY COMPETITIVE SPORT.
The man is worth more than $100 million dollars - let them sue - will barely put a dent in what he's worth.
Who cares, don't we have more important things to worry about in this country.
Hell, the Tour de France isn't even held in the US nor is it our bike race.
Get off your moral high horse and remember - let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
Oh, and BTW, not into cycling and not a Lance Armstrong fan - just get tired of all these - "I'm so perfect" people damming someone when they are lying, cheating and stealing everyday. Remember - even God said we ALL were flawed, not just a few.
Lance-Oprah interview? "Ain't got time for dat".
Well, I'm sure not perfect and never pretended to be. I have never cared for him at all since I first saw him and heard him speak many years ago. I thought he was lying from the beginning and wasn't fooled at all, and no, just because everyone was doing it doesn't make it less lying or cheating. I don't respect any of them who did that...not just him...but he kept insisting on being public about how innocent he was and how awful others were. It was bull from the beginning. I don't respect anyone who dopes in any sport. Not only is it lying and cheating, but it is a horrible role model for kids watching and diminishes the sport, makes it so hard for honest people to win, and is just wrong.
If he thinks admitting it now after all the lying will make him friends I don't get that. So does this get him a perjury charge for any lies he told under oath? And yes, I know I'm not perfect. This never was acceptable behavior, though, and it isn't in any sport. Play clean or go away and stop lying. Perhaps he will just go live a life and stop lying to everyone now...not counting on it, though.
Now I want to see Baseball, Basketball, and Football get the same treatment ! I want to see the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency go after a couple dozen World series winners and Super Bowl winners and take their titles away. I bet that will never happen ! Too much money and influence in those sports. So who's the real cheater ? The US Anti-Doping Agency That's Who !
Everyone keeps lauding his cancer work, but has no one else put 2+2 together and thought that maybe he developed testicular cancer because of his doping?
It's not a cancer lots of young men just spontaneously develop.
I have to wonder what his goal is in finally coming clean...now that he's $100 million richer and middle aged. It's like a bank robber who's pulled the perfect heist and suddenly decides to admit that, yeah, he may have had something to do with it...but after the statute of limitations has eliminated the possibility of being actually sent to jail for it.
I can't believe he confessed this simply to run in a triathlon. And given the endless pursuit of his lies, I would suspect that over the years he's hidden substantial assets just in case.
@tst63, What a horrible thing to say! "It's not a cancer lots of young men just spontaneously develop".
My son had the same type of cancer and he didn't do anything to his body to cause it.
Please do your research before you post comments on things you apparently know nothing about.
If he did it so did everyone else, so what who cares. Do people really think that these atheletes are not on drugs, get a clue. Like the first commenter said Lance who, which tells me he really did not give a crap in the first place just wanted to say something. The worst part of this is if Lance had shared his money with the people of the Tour de France, you would never have heard about it. That is why they are pursuing him not because he broke the rules but because he did not share it. He broke the sharing rules not the tour rules.
The guy rides a damn bicycle. Move the hell on. Get a life.
tst63 said, " It's not a cancer lots of young men just spontaneously develop." I am not in anyway defending Lance, but a quick search on the U.S. National Library of Medicine showed this - Testicular cancer is the most common form of cancer in men between the ages of 15 and 35. It can occur in older men, and rarely, in younger boys.
I still don't understand why every one who needs to "confess" or set the "record straight" goes to a large black woman in hollywood. armstrong and his freakin bike who cares?
Terry, the guy made millions riding that bicycle, would have made crap if he would have lost. Everybody would be asking Lance who right know if he would have lost. Would not have been thought of as this great cancer survivor, what great hope he gave to people, look how I came back from this, what I accomplished, I did it fair. Look at me I your inspiration! He's a liar and a cheat, and he illegaly took money in the process.
NBC wasted a whole story on this low life, yes low life, for all of you that embrace him today. Don't run a story that has some value.
Sounds like something Obama would say.
Leave it to someone to have to bring in Obama when this has nothing to do with him. Let's not forget Bush and his WOMD shall we? Come on. This might be happening in every sport but Lance has disgraced others who tried to call him out; he has vehemently denied having anything to do with it. I can already see some of the sympathizers in these replies - exactly what he's hoping for. Problem is, all of us, who didn't earn millions of dollars and fame/notoriety weren't out there making a public spectacle of ourselves then making the other person feel like an idiot when they accused him of doping. Now he wants to come clean - when he should have done it back in 99. He used his cancer as a crutch to reduce scrutiny on him. I'd like to see any of you naysayers ride the Tour de France in the time that any one of these pros do. It's a brilliant sport when it's clean. We loved Lance because of his story and tenacity. It was all a ruse. Now he wants to come clean and then compete again to show us what he's capable of? Day late dollar short.
Don't care much about the man, or cycling, and even less about Oprah. But out of curiosity, given that cyclists undergo some of the most stringent doping tests in sports, how did he manage to test negative for so long? Also, if everyone was doing it, who gets to win the 7 TDF (or his Olympic medal)?
Why care? Thousands of these high paid atheletes are/were on the juice, that is why are get so appressive, huge muscle bound etc....if you think you are not fully aware of how it works wonders ....for a while.
Pharma works on this stuff, big biz and they work hard at finding new compounds that cannot be detected.
Why? Almost every one of them has already been stripped for cheating, they just didn't cheat as well as him. Cycling is nearly, if not just as dirty as sulky racing and club boxing. How do you know when the fix is on, when the event has started! Don't go all Pollyanna about it.
He simply is a better cheater with a better story than the others.
@sotired, wish I could answer your questions. The list of cyclist from what seems to be every single country that have been busted as long time dopers is astounding. I say just dump the records put a note on the books for the last 15 years that says, "too flipping many cheaters so no one won!"
Ok folks, you may hate me for this, but it's much bigger than ole Lance Armstrong. All these big corporate businesses also were in on this con game Lance played on the people. They all were involved because big dollars/profits were to be made off the people.
Nike and all these other companies are just as guilty as Lance, and all of them need to be prosecuted, shut down and fined tins of money for duping the Olympics, the people, and the cancer society.
These people used everyone for profits.
They all need to be rounded up and prosecuted imo.
Don't just point the finger at Lance, he's just the tip of the iceberg of this mega money making scheme, and I wouldn't be one bit surprised to learn that even the Olympics committee were in on this as well.
I agree with KeenInsight-I just don't really get why, after lying for so long, he decided to come clean. Why he continued to lie a few months ago, with "I'm just tired of fighting the false accusations", rather than just coming clean then. I find it kind of hard to believe that he had this miraculous change of heart-more likely he's getting something (no idea what) out of this now that his awards have already been striped. I mean, he's alienated most people from him now, whereas his popularity went down after he decided to stop fighting the charges, but he still had a large number of people who were still die-hard fans. But I do agree that this seems to be a big problem in the cycling world with many of the competitors.
For those who were wondering how he tested clean so long, I watched part of a documentary a little while ago about Olympic sprinters in the 80's (it was focused on the rivalry of Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson, and various teammates-if I remember correctly it was about suspicions of Johnson doping and Lewis not), where there were so many participants suspected of doping, but were not caught by drug tests before and after events. Now I have no idea what Lance did, but some of the track athletes would use whatever it was during training, and then stop taking it a month or so before a competition so that they would test clean. The benefit was that they gained much more while training than had they not been doping (muscles built up faster and easier, they could lift weights far more often without getting hurt, etc), and thus started dominating their competitors. So essentially they used various substances to cheat during training, which then gave them an unfair advantage during competition. Maybe Lance did something similar?
I agree with Srich, Rocky Rhode and (specially) Kimbo47 (plus anything with similar comments I may have missed) said.
So they guy lied about doing something everyone does in competitive sports. Who cares? Stop with the fake outrage already and get back to your lives, watching athletes being expected to pull off unrealistic levels of performance on TV. Its what YOU have been paying for, for YEARS.
Stop feigning shock when you get what you asked for.
I know I'll catch hell for this but maybe his cancer was a lie too. In 2008 he got his girlfriend pregnant. Not something that usually happens if you've had that type cancer.
jchoney
Ur right, and who knows, we all just might find out that his girlfriend was bought and paid for to.
It most certainly does matter when the USPS "gives" the team over 30 million dollars, and now is closing post offices, cutting services and downsizing. May even cut out Saturday delivery. (I'm ok with that, by the way). But if they are on television raising stamps, going broke, stop forking over money. Even if he was legit and hadn't lied about his doping, you aren't in a position to be forking over money. Whoever made that decision needs to be looking for another job. It's not like the post office needed the advertisement...we all know it's there. Think people. Even Nike and the other brands that endorsed the biggest narcissit to come along in quite a few years.....who do you think pays for all that support? For the race that "isn't even our's"! The cost is passed on down to each and everyone of us that purchases the product. Taxes are imposed in cities to build NFL stadiums. Basketball arena's. Companies that we do business with pay millions to name a building or sponsor a bowl game. It's all passed on to us each and every day. Whether we like it or not. Frankly I'm tired of it. If I wanted to support a team I would buy a ticket and go. Oh...wait...I can't afford a ticket...........hmmmmm anyone else see major problems with the way this is being handled????
Geo, this happened in the '90's - the situation was a lot different from today. USPS didn't just "give" $30 in one lump sum - that was money spent to support the team expenses voer the years that they raced. And, oh by the way, that moey is in the noise when it comes to the overal USPS budget.
In other news, Lance will reveal on Oprah that he is now dating Lennay Kekua.
Now this is funny!
Certainly Lance Armstrong has his fans, but the only thing I find even mildly interesting about this issue is the incredible level of media hysteria that has descended upon it.
And now that good ol' Lance is confessing to....Oprah!!!???...you KNOW that the whole thing is trivial.
Come on- go after doping, but you can't be selective. Can you imagine drug testing the NFL players?
Srich:
They do test in the NFL and those who test positive are suspended. This guy
tried to ruin anyone who spoke out on his cheating. He called one woman a whore
when she testified that she had disposed of syringes at his bequest. He makes
Bonds and Clemens look like choir boys. Oh, and just because everybody was doing
it does not make it right.
Oh spare me! All of it.
The NFL random testing is a joke- ask any of them that got away with it for years.
I didn't say it was right because they were all doing it, I said it was the norm. People love to be on a band wagon.
Bonds and Clemons are pukes- don't even go there.
Srich - the difference for most people is that Armstrong destroyed lives of people who only spoke the truth...no NFL player, Bonds, Clemons, Mac, etc have gone to the lengths that Armstrong went to in financially and professionally destroying others - and innocent others included.
It's not simply the doping, it's the fraud, the manipulation, the destruction of other's lives, the phonyness - the ridiculousness of his wife seeing him through cancer and then him dumping her as soon as he was cured and got 'famous'. He's a tool.
Go do some research on what Armstrong did to other people and then get back to us here - you'll see that none of the other "dopers" did any of that stuff to people.
and you know this to be the absolute truth, HOW?
Armstrong was part of a team- sponsors, supporters, money, lots and lots of money.
Watching everyone waving their finger at the man while he is down hard seems pointless.
Hate the game, not the player ;)
Have a great day all!
He didn't ruin anybody. So he spoke out about them? So what, that doesn't mean it "ruined anyone".
You can only be ruined if you let yourself be ruined - give me a break.
@Srich, it is indeed a great day.
1. If you don't think that Armstrong was the leader of that entire team, and it didn't go wherever he wanted it to go, you're delusional.
2. He himself never had a problem with not only pointing fingers, but kicking someone when they were down, in fact he employed a team of lawyers to do it for him. He destroyed peoples lives, careers and reputations to continue his selfish charade, knowing that he was wrong the entire time but simply not caring about anyone but himself. This isn't vengeance, it's justice, and it's richly deserved given his actions.
3. There's nothing wrong with the game itself, it's an abstract and doesn't merit either love or hate. The personalities that engage it the game are human however, and their actions are susceptible to human emotions like love, hate, admiration, inspiration, disgust, etc.
Hating the player is entirely human, especially when trust has been betrayed, hating the game is the mark of an intellect incapable of identifying the differences between the two. When someone you trust inevitably cheats on you someday, and you get upset because your trust has been shattered, I hope they'll simply smile and say "Hey babe, hate the game, not the player".
I wonder if you'll be as forgiving, but I'm thinking probably not.
I don't hate him. I don't know him personally. I don't have any respect for him and haven't ever. Good post, Mj.
Two words: Greg LeMond
The best tour ever was 1989 when LeMond beat Laurent Fignon by 8 seconds. Laurent dropped to the ground practically in tears after losing. He was leading by 50 seconds before the final time trial. He later admitted he doped during his carrier and died of cancer at 50.
And because of this you believe LeMond was clean? Don't make me laugh. Look at his climbing data. Look at the fact that he smoked known dopers, who for all intents and purposes were superhuman. Lemond was as corrupt as any, he hated Lance for playing his game better than he did.
Incidentally, US Postal was doping before Lance. Lance just took the organization of it to the next level, because he wanted to win, and he wanted to NOT GET BUSTED.
Armstrong just made it top of the heap of those that dope and I bet that more than 50% dope or have.
His ego is so large he has to crawl in the door.
And so just because your golden boy LA is now disgraced you are going to accuse LeMond with no evidence of any sort other than the fact that he was good, and he is an anit-doping advocate. Whatever else you may think of him LeMond has never been accused of doping other than by a few anonymous dickwads writing in forums on the Internet.
Even though LA has always been kind of an arrogant a-hole in my book, I always thought it was unfair to single him out since he passed his tests at the time and nothing was ever proven. Now it's like WTF? He denied it so many times even sued over it and he's guilty? On top of that fools still defend him.
Mjolnir-889746 Thanks for the informative though somewhat winded observation.
I don't give a rat's behind about Lance Armstrong. He is one of many narcissistic creeps worshiped today for all his athletic contributions. What I really enjoy is watching the nature of people. They love to carry the great hero on their shoulders when he's a big winner, and what they love even more is kicking them when they are down. They all fall down one way or another.
I love sports, I love the NFL- where we see this all the time. Relax, I thought the guy was a real turd back when he left his wife and kids for Sheryl Crowe.
Here's the kicker- he's the winner. the book, the movie deal starring his best friend Matthew McConahay (sp) watch for it ;)
I think it was very hard for him, too many big fish and too much money were on the line. He is a cheat and a liar to the max. He lets his ego get the best of him, now it is time to pay the price. Oh no, nothing will happen to him just a little slap in the wrist.
BTW he "pays the price" monetarily - then EVERYONE - his sponsors, other teammates, EVERYONE gives up the $$ they earned off his back.
Tit for tat - right?
That would be justice, right?
He is a cheat and a pathological liar.
..and he's still done more good with his life than most.
He beat the whiny Frenchmen several times over, even when they were doping too. He deserves to keep at least one medal for that. ;)
He is not a cheat, he played their game and won. He didn't do it alone. Their pissed because he beat then at their own game... Humans don't evolve, they use better drugs, and methods for performance. Wait until they start playing with genetics.
Boromir- the voice of reason-thanks for playing!
he stole money from honest riders... second place don't get the big money and endorsements...he screwed a lot of people ...only worried bout his self glorification...like a punk...
And if you have ever lied - even a white lie about when you were coming home, etc., then news flash - YOU ARE A LIAR TOO.
Actually, every single one of us who have lied even once are LIARS - me included.
So what, all of us are flawed because we're all human. Welcome to the human race!
The fact that there are many other cheats doesn't change that. Surely with in the ranks of the dozens of riders that race there are many that didn't cheat.
The old saying if walls could talk would be really great for this story. A lot of people made a lot of money, and looked the other way. Look at Baseball, yeah the players that got caught using won't make it to the Hall of Fame, but that's not what it's about. They made millions for people and themselves. I live in the real world, and fair play has never been a business strategy. It's always about advantage, How to make more money than the other guy... Research the top 100 in Forbes, they may play by the rules, but it's rules they write. Very easy to get off topic, but look how the NRA stacked the deck in their favor with the ATF.. it's all a game.
It could be worse.......He could have gotten a Kardashian pregnant.
Doh! Caught riding the town bicycle...............
Nez best comment of the page.............LOL
I think the way he bullied and threatened others to keep them silent bothers me even more than his doping and cheating. All around,a portrait of an amazingly self-centered man.
Lance is a dirtbag. I always thought it was really fishy of him to bounce back from cancer so quickly to win more races.
Could the testicular shrinking steroids have caused the cancer? I don't buy the whole catching it from a bicycle seat line....... Lots of questions.
Other than a few of you here I don't think the rest of the world cares.
So Americans feel betrayed? They shouldn't. First, Americans award athletes for success, and athletes, themselves, want to be successful. There is no award or recognition for a mediocre football team, and I doubt that very many Americans can name another cyclyist besides Lance Armstrong. Even now in the wake of this scandal, I don't see any high-profile stories about the principled cyclyist who eschewed performance-enhancing drugs and finished in 30th place at the Tour de France. That gets me to my second point: If you wanted to be a successful cyclyist in the 1990s and 2000s, then you had to use illegal, performance-enhancing drugs. So, we have a highly competitive cyclyist, Lance Armstrong, who took performance-enhancing drugs and then felt compelled to live a lie in order to maintain his success and avoid the condemnation of the public. It's all very understandable to me . . . and tragic. No, I don't feel betrayed. Any American who claims that he feels "betrayed" by Lance Armstrong is being dishonest or does not understand the situation.
I saw the enemy and it was me.
LOOK!!! A shiny thing! LOOK HERE!!!
BHO
I think we should quadruple the amount of "dope" to Lance for at least a month, then put him on a bike and see if he can break his own records.
That MIGHT make for an interesting bicycle race.
who cares just another distraction for obaa and attck on whites
Please check your meds. Your frontal lobe is missing.
rather have a bottle in front of me...than to have a frontal lobotomy...
All those years when everyone of my semi-pro friends (and spouse) were fawning over this idiot, I said it was impossible to do what he did without 'help'. Then he was miraculously 'cured' of cancer? Funny that bit, because no one else manages to be 'cured' of cancer and go on to win the Tour. More likely he suffered metabolic syndrome and then was managed with a cocktail or two for the rest of his life. His gonads shrunk to nothing and he has nothing left but his insufferable ego. Go away Mr. Armstrong.
If people would stop believing that having a singular extraordinary talent somehow makes a person a god rather than just another normally flawed person, maybe they'd have to deal with a whole lot less disappointment. If you want to look up to a hero, why not try try being one yourself instead.
Lance is lying. He never doped. He is simply trying to get on with his life.
you are the biggest jerk yet
Anyone with brains knew he was a cheater years ago. How else does an athlete in his prime get testicular cancer? Roids!
The same way US fell for Barack Obama! This country has a distinguished track record of falling for Bogus people.
Was just thinking the same thing, that goes for obama and the rest of congress.
Time for Lance to give back to society.
Give back for what? What about that obama and crew? When are they going to give back instead of take?
Lance was deemed the All-American Boy who could do no wrong! So the media wasn't willing to believe that he was guilty prmarily because of his good boy looks, based in part on his stereotype as the "perfect" White Boy. Which was different than Bonds, who was guilty until proven innocent. Shame on everybody for not being more discerning of the information that they accepted, just because Lance looked the part! Shame on you!
Pete Rose was a great baseball player, he was ruined for betting, Lance Armsrtong cheated and lied and made millions riding a stupid bike, how fair is that?
ok Jim, we get it, americans love baseball ans despise cycling...Don't denigrate a sport you know nothing about, a sport loved by millions of people in Europe and in many countries.Winning a race like the Tour is not "riding a stupid bike", anymore than winning the worlds Series is "hitting a freaking ball".
Who cares? He is a has-been that only the media cares about. Seems the cycling world needs to take a good hard look at themselves instead of patsy scapegoats.
will obama cry and beg for forgiveness too
And here are the political nuts injecting politics into everything! Go to an Obama article to write about him, and leave this to people that want to comment about this article. Oh and btw the elections are over.
rgigi,
we are not political nuts. And injecting obama into everything, well, he does it so much himself. I am surprised he hasn't posted here on this.
Elayne
Then what kind of nut are you.
It is one thing to be a cheat and a liar, and another to be a person who destroyed the careers and lives of young athletes who refused to accept the Armstrong Doping Philosophy and/or elected to speak the truth when placed under oath for depositions. Go ahead America, use Armstrong as a Sports Icon when motivating your children to seek their dreams at any cost. CheatStrong!
Just imagine ALL the people who are so VERY ANGRY at Lance Armstrong for cheating and lying, what they would think of their own children, better yet their spouses, if they ever cheated or lied? Would you be just as discussed? Would/Could you forgive them?
On a side note: Not one person is perfect and most if not all have lied or cheated at least once in their life regardless of how small it seemed at the time. Stop throwing stones and get on with your life, Lance has...
Unfortunately, Lance has not and will not 'get on with his life' in any serendipitous or meaningful way until he has suffered - and most likely, the World will exact a suffering commensurate with his previous success...that's alot of pain.