Today it became official the International Cycling Union or UCI, not sure how that works, stripped Lance Armstrong of his 7 Tour De France titles. Last week Armstrong stepped down as chairman of the Livestrong Foundation, and Nike dropped their sponsorship of him, and today Oakley his last sponsor dropped him. The USADA brought the doping charges against Armstrong in August and he refused to fight them claiming he's tired of fighting. My stance on Armstrong is this, why are we shocked that a guy who dominated the most doped sport doped? I'm not shocked and frankly I was waiting for this too happen, all greats in doping sports eventually cave. The debate however is this, should Armstrong be known as a doper or as a guy who helped raise more than 470 million dollars since it started in 1997.
I personally find the fact he helped raise 470 million dollars a farce. Armstrong started the foundation in 1997, he won his first Tour de France in 1999, I have no facts to back this up but I bet he didn't raise as much money those first 2 years as his did after he won. I bet you didn't wear one of those yellow bracelets until after he won a few of those races. He basically built his foundation, career and bank account on lies. My stance on steroids in baseball has been stated I'm all for it, and I won't crucify guys who used, my stance is almost the same for this. Armstrong wanted to use to win, fine with me, but don't lie about it and don't have a foundation and career based off it. I don't like when people say they're giving Armstrong a pass b/c of all the good he did. Well that's awesome are those same people giving Joe Paterno a pass for all the good he did at Penn St.? I bet not. When your life is built on lies no matter what you did good or bad you should be held accountable. So far, business wise Armstrong has but I fear in the court of public opinion he's getting a pass b/c he helped cancer victims.
My final thought is this, if your Lance Armstrong please just admit the truth already, don't come out with this "I'm tired of fighting" crap, if your innocent you never get tired of fighting.
I'm okay with him getting a pass in the court of public opinion even if it it's "just" for helping cancer victims. I'm not saying his help is unrelated to his professional career but I am saying I don't mind the end result as far as the foundation is concerned. JoePa is a completely different and more serious circumstance. If Lance cheated, well he cheated, and people lost a race because of it and he put his OWN body at risk. JoePa's inaction had irrevocable consequences for dozens of children/young adults.
ReplyDeleteAlso, professionally, the only problem I have with them stripping his titles is that the titles will now go to suspected or confirmed dopers. All this proves is the Tour is basically a sham.
Full disclosure: I never had a yellow wristband...but I really wanted one :)