Lance Armstrong was an inspiration, my hero for more than a Decade. A cancer survivor, a great cyclist and a man who did much to create awareness and raise funds for Cancer.
But then, the Dominos all came tumbling down and one felt cheated, swindled, conned…. you name it and I felt it. The super loyal Lance will fans will tell you he was still the best because he beat a peleton of cheaters, but I don’t buy that and one of the many reasons why is best summed up by top Great Britain rider Nicole Cooke, who announced her Retirement this week.
“I have been robbed by drug cheats, but I am fortunate, I am here before you with more (medals) in my basket than the 12 year old dreamed of. But for many genuine people out there who do ride clean; people with morals, many of these people have had to leave the sport with nothing after a lifetime of hard work — some going through horrific financial turmoil. When Lance “cries” on Oprah later this week and she passes him a tissue, spare a thought for all of those genuine people who walked away with no reward – just shattered dreams. Each one of them is worth a thousand Lances.”
– Nicole Cooke (A link to Nicole’s retirement statement is at foot of this article: a highly recommended read)
I’m extremely happy that I was able to say NO and to resist any temptations to ‘cheat’ or to take a short cut but my biggest concern is for the youth of today and for my children. We hardly heard of drugs back in the day, but seemingly it is touted in the gyms and even in some inland cycle shops (if rumours are to be believed, although I still would like to believe not) these days. For me, one of the big Blessings that comes out of the Tyler Hamilton confession and hopefully Lance’s too, is that it brings out into the open the cheating. I’m not sure how they tell their kids that they weren’t Champions and that they were crooks and hopefully this will deter our kids. (in addition to the morals we hope to instill)
My big concern though is that these crooks may be becoming modern day ‘heros’ in this sick world we live in. The media portrays Tyler Hamilton as the saviour of cycling and he came out of the Carte Blanche expose looking far too good a person in my opinion. He is becoming a multi millionaire (from his book sales) and has had more TV exposure over drugs than interviews for bike races, including his Olympic Gold.
So the question is simply, is this the end of Lance, or just the beginning? Sure everybody deserves a second chance and in Lance’s case it will be a 500th + chance (500 passed drug tests!!) and Lance can presumably still do a lot of good for Cancer, but let’s not view him as a Hero once the furore has died down.
Surely the Sporting Authorities must realise that their one and two year bans do little to deter drug cheats, so how about Lifetime Bans for these unethical sportsmen and women? As they not only cheat their fellow competitor out of a medal, they cheat the sponsors, the sporting public and the televison viewer, but most of all, they, in many cases are perceived as role models and I do not want my kids aspriring to be the next Lance Armstrong.
For more on Lance and the Oprah interview, follow the link below.
For Nicole Cooke’s retirement statement, follow the loink below.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/jan/14/nicole-cooke-retirement-statement?CMP=twt_gu
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