Lance Armstrong, seven-time Tour de France winner, has been acknowledged and understood as a cyclist who has used blood booster erythropoietin, or EPO, according to this article from the New York Times. As such, Armstrong is no longer the chairman of his cancer foundation and has lost nearly all of is endorsements. Apparently, most of Armstrong’s teammates were also encouraged to follow similar patterns and use drugs to enhance their performance. Armstrong’s teammate, Floyd Landis, was among the first to admit to using drugs. Landis shared his story to the director of the Tour of California Cycling Race, Andrew Messick, in April 2010. Landis confessed that Armstrong and other riders were all involved in team-organized doping. Even David Zabriskie, a five-time national time trial champion, confessed his stories at the federal courthouse in Los Angeles. After hearing story after story, Tygart, Chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, and Bill Bock, the Anti-Doping Agency’s general counsel, said enough was enough. “[They] are here to dismantle the dirty system that still exists in cycling so this won’t happen to another rider again”.
Hearing about all of this on the news was pretty depressing to me. I mean you hear all of these stories about Lance Armstrong overcoming cancer, and then becoming seven-time Tour de France winner, and it just brought so much inspiration and hope to people. But then to hear he has always used drugs to achieve these awards, and even encouraged his teammates to follow suit, brought a feeling of sadness and disappointment. Sports are a big part of American culture, no doubt about it, but using drugs to enhance ones performance should definitely not be part of the game. Now, Tygart and Bock previously mentioned that they wanted to “dismantle the dirty system that still exist in cycling”, but I wonder if they will be able to. I know their intentions are there, but do you think there will be execution? Or is the sport too far gone that there is no hope?
Alex, Nice job blogging overall this term. You cover a nice range of topics and you generally offer links to outside sources -- as you do here. This post feels more like plot than argument at times, though. It might help if you analyze some of the specific language of the key players: Tygart, Landis, Armstrong. Landis did not admit right away, btw.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you "know their intentions are there"? How does this differ from, say, baseball? How has Armstrong's fall affected all those cancer patients? How does this relate to my recent heroes post? Are Americans the only dopers? Answering any of these questions might push this post even farther.