Jamie Reidy comments on the US Anti-Doping Agency’s vendetta against cycling legend Lance Armstrong.
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has file doping charges against former cyclist Lance Armstrong that could strip him of all seven Tour de France titles. Armstrong received the letter Tuesday, notifying him of USADA’s intention to file charges. It said USADA alleges that he possessed and used testosterone and blood-doping products while a member of the U.S. Postal racing team, beginning in 1998.
Yet more good news for the US Postal Service! Quite a 2012 for Cliff Clancy’s beloved service.
But it’s another quasi government agency – the USADA – that has me wanting to write some hate mail.
Dear USADA –
E-N-O-U-G-H, already. You’ve tried to nail the seven-time Tour de France winner for years. This obsession has taking on “Les Miserables” proportions, with Armstrong currying Jean Val Jean-like sympathy. And that takes a lot, since Lance, like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens – two other targets of long, expensive and ultimately fruitless government prosecutions – is not exactly Personality Plus.
Naturally, Mr. Armstrong maintains his innocence.
“I have never doped, and, unlike many of my accusers, I have competed as an endurance athlete for 25 years with no spike in performance, passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one. That USADA ignores this fundamental distinction and charges me instead of the admitted dopers says far more about USADA, its lack of fairness and this vendetta than it does about my guilt or innocence. Any fair consideration of these allegations has and will continue to vindicate me.”
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I’m tired of this saga. Lance Armstrong is a hero to millions of people and has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer research. Why work so hard to ruin his good name?
GMP readers, do you think Lance Armstrong cheated? Why or why not?
Photo by: Phil Sexton
I get what you’re saying about “everybody was doing it,” but what bugs me about Lance is his holier than thou attitude. If he falls, he’s going down HARD.
Oh, totally. I think we’re in agreement here. He’s playing the righteousness card for all it’s worth, and while it is working on many, it’s slowly earning him more enemies all the time. He might just be the living definition of “The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it.” And if he does go down, it’ll be an awfully long fall.
The Onion did a nice satire of his attitude here:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/lance-armstrong-wants-to-tell-nation-something-but,17973/
There’s not a doubt in my mind that he doped, just like everyone else he was racing against, but I don’t necessarily judge him for it. I’ve been following the sport closely for 20 years, and every guy he beat has been busted or confessed, and many of his teammates (Hamilton, Landis, Andreu, others) and former aids saying he was doing it just like everyone else. (The argument that they’re lying just to frame Lance holds little weight–they have little to gain and everything to lose, especially by incurring the wrath of one of the world’s wealthiest and most influential… Read more »
“…just to not be at a DISadvantage,” I meant to say.
It’s hard to know what Lance did or did not do. Whatever it is, you can bet it’s no different than what anyone else does in pro sports. The real issue is that they’re picking on HIM – and cycling – rather than going after, say, more “mainstream” sports. He’s been suspended from racing before he’s even been proven guilty, while known offenders in other sports continue to play with little more than a warning. Definitely feels like a witch hunt.