Kudos To Lance Armstrong

[Blaine]

He finally had the ball to tell the truth.

[FWiedner]

Lot of sore losers out there whose pair ain't nearly as big his.

He's still the finest endurance athlete who has ever lived.

[Blaine]

Lot of sore losers out there whose pair ain't nearly as big his.

He's still the finest endurance athlete who has ever lived.

He don't have a pair anymore....I hate working with amatures

[FWiedner]

Lot of sore losers out there whose pair ain't nearly as big his.

He's still the finest endurance athlete who has ever lived.

He don't have a pair anymore....I hate working with amatures

Trying to imply their pair compared to his one.

[1894c]

hard to celebrate a liar and a cheat...just my opinion... :(

[Blaine]

Lot of sore losers out there whose pair ain't nearly as big his.

He's still the finest endurance athlete who has ever lived.

He don't have a pair anymore....I hate working with amatures

Trying to imply their pair compared to his one.

Cycling Singularity?

[FWiedner]

A single-minded fellow at the very least...

[El Chivo]

now, was that from a bike accident?

[Griff]

Hard to defend what he did, but steppin' forward with an admission is character building. Didn't watch so I won't comment further.

[bdhold]

Have to admire anyone who pedals the Texas hills all day long in the summer heat.

It was his book, though, that diminished my admiration. Someone who beat cancer on his own spirituality and didn't want or need the help of a Christian God - to me, it makes what followed a natural progression.
He also made a concerted effort to hide the truth by building up his whole oxygen R&D labs - it was even on a Nova show.

[Hobie]

now, was that from a bike accident?

Testicular cancer.

[Hobie]

Have to admire anyone who pedals the Texas hills all day long in the summer heat.

It was his book, though, that diminished my admiration. Someone who beat cancer on his own spirituality and didn't want or need the help of a Christian God - to me, it makes what followed a natural progression.
He also made a concerted effort to hide the truth by building up his whole oxygen R&D labs - it was even on a Nova show.

You make an excellent point.

I think this whole thing points up something else we see in all sports and that is a lack of effort to catch cheats. Why? Because the cheats are the performers who bring the spectators who pay the money for coverage, advertisers, products, etc. You see it in all the professional and college sports now. AFTER they've made their money, the sport administrators make a half-hearted effort to improve their screening but throw the old guys under the bus to garner more publicity and rake in more followers to make more money.

[Barcelona Rick]

What about the people he ruined by calling them all liars......what about the libel case he won by committing perjury.....what about the sponsor money he made while cheating ?? Is he going to be punished for committing perjury while under oath ?? Cheating and covering it up for personal gain/monetary gain is immoral and just plain wrong.....IMO......

rick

[TedH]

What about the people he ruined by calling them all liars......what about the libel case he won by committing perjury.....what about the sponsor money he made while cheating ?? Is he going to be punished for committing perjury while under oath ?? Cheating and covering it up for personal gain/monetary gain is immoral and just plain wrong.....IMO......

rick

Exactly. I don't care what he may have achieved, he blew it all by taking so many innocent down with him.

[AJMD429]

Seems like the athletic sports should emulate the shooting sports, and have a regular class, and an 'unlimited' class. The ones in the regular class would have to meet rules and be drug-tested or whatever, but the ones in unlimited could stoke up on whatever they want.

[jcw]

Fraud, liar, and a cheat. The only positive thing he's done, IMO, is his fundraising for cancer research.

[Grizzly Adams]

Fraud, liar, and a cheat. The only positive thing he's done, IMO, is his fundraising for cancer research.

+1 I admired Lance and always felt he was being accused of doping because he was good, therefore a target. Very disappointing...... The saddest part is that he could have done it without the dope.

[BAGTIC]

This is an example of why I turned my back on all organized sports years ago. Money invites corruption. Big money big corruption. What ever happened to sport for the love of the sport?

Money has worked its way into perverting sports all the way down to High School, at least. Prize money. Endorsements. Exploitable fame. Hell it has even crept into hunting and fishing. Same with the Olympics. It is a business whose success is measured by dollars made and dollars lost. Anything for a buck. When I was young there was a $15 maximum legal prize limit for fishing contests. Now it is a profession.

[rossim92]

since he has been stripped of his titles. does the first place loser of each event he won get them now?

[Old Savage]

A chapter in sports history along with Bonds etc. I would like to know how he passed all the tests and specifically what he did.

[2571]

hard to celebrate a liar and a cheat...just my opinion...

He is & ands always was a dirtbag. cf, the way he treated his first wife.

I would not laud him in any wise.

[Blaine]

Severe Thread Drift Warning.....

[Borregos]

Fraud, liar, and a cheat. The only positive thing he's done, IMO, is his fundraising for cancer research.

You got that right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He is an excellent actor too!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[wecsoger]

Lance Armstrong was the lead 'doper' in a sport that's riddled with it. Not condoning it, just pointing out what's true. Whatever he did before, not or in the future is not going to touch my life one bit.

But note, he has never been busted. Lot's of folks said they knew, but they had no proof. There's several groups that have wanted his head on a pike for years.

Just to let you know what's going on with your tax dollars (didn't know that, did you?), one of those head-on-a-pike groups is going to claim a lot of credit for making him come forward. They're gaining a lot of prestige and stature, and will expand to figure out how to spend *more* of your tax dollars doing it.

More details, here:

http://www.wired.com/playbook/2013/01/o ... reRecently

Good to know our gov't is all over this case, taking care of things for us.

[FWiedner]

since he has been stripped of his titles. does the first place loser of each event he won get them now?

Of the seven Tour de France titles that Armstrong won, from the TWENTY-ONE 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place finishers who may have been awarded any of these hand-me-down titles, TWENTY of them have been sanctioned for doping and using PEDs, and these are Mr. Armstrong's accusers. Armstrong never failed a test.

Sad that he felt he had to lie about it, and that he chose to smear and be a false witness against his peers, but he is a tough tough competitor and his critics are nothing more than cry-babies who couldn't beat him on their best day. IMO, he did what he had to do to be competitive in his profession.

Rightly or wrongly, he'll suffer the legal consequences and repercussions of his contractual failures and perjury.

[handirifle]

Lance has become a huge disappointment to me. As a former road cyclist, not on his level but still enjoyed the sport, I have doubts if he could have ever won even a single Tour without it. The international testing agency has proven by going back to the Tour of Sweden samples and testing them to todays standards and he was doping even before the first Tour De France he competed in.

I have followed the Tour for over 20 years and can tell you it takes superhuman effort for those guys to win twice in a row, which is what made Bernard Hinault such a HUGE phenomenon.

The last time Lance entered a Tour, he was clean, but finished 36th overall, a long way from first place.

Sure Lance has come out now, but ONLY because he wants to compete again. Personally I feel he has damaged even LiveStrong severely. The only reason that got as large as it did was because he was a liar then too. Sad cause that is a good cause.

His name is so tarnished now, it will never mean anything to anyone. I personally feel he shamed cycling, he shamed America, and has undoubtedly shamed his own kids.

Lying and cheating ultimately has its rewards, and he is reaping those now. Very sad. As was mentioned, I feel the saddest for the women he literally called bitches, and whores, because they told the truth about him in public, and ONLY because he had the money on his side was he able to silence them. Most of his best "friends" have disowned him, because he called them liars in public also. I would bet money, that both his wife (who stood by him though all the years of his cancer) and Cheryl Crow, left him due to his lying and cheating.

What a sad legacy he leaves behind. With all the pending lawsuits, he will most likely be broke before long too. While his crimes are not as severe, he will be remembered like OJ Simpson, as a liar that got away with it, for a while.

[jh45gun]

He is a looser as far as I am concerned.

[sore shoulder]

Lot of sore losers out there whose pair ain't nearly as big his.

He's still the finest endurance athlete who has ever lived.

Lance wasn't doing anything his fellow competitors weren't doing. He just did it better. Most of the people criticizing Lance could dope the rest of their lives and train every day and never ever reach half his level of athleticism. I'll be wearing Lance Armstrong jerseys at cycling events around Colorado this year. The people attacking Lance are the same impotent jerks who love to tear down a hero. If doping allows you to compete at his level after recovering from cancer and be in his health at his age, we should all be doing it. It's no different than taking vitamins and drinking plenty of water in my opinion.

[handirifle]

Lot of sore losers out there whose pair ain't nearly as big his.

He's still the finest endurance athlete who has ever lived.

Lance wasn't doing anything his fellow competitors weren't doing. He just did it better. Most of the people criticizing Lance could dope the rest of their lives and train every day and never ever reach half his level of athleticism. I'll be wearing Lance Armstrong jerseys at cycling events around Colorado this year. The people attacking Lance are the same impotent jerks who love to tear down a hero. If doping allows you to compete at his level after recovering from cancer and be in his health at his age, we should all be doing it. It's no different than taking vitamins and drinking plenty of water in my opinion.

So I guess rules are only meant for those that get caught? Even he admits some of his teammates refused to cheat. my hats off to them. Some of THOSE that loved to criticize him, were the same ones that carried him to the top podium. None of them said a word to the public until they got caught. Were others cheating, sure I have no doubt, but that still does not make it better. Lance would have been a REAL hero, had he not been using, and still beat them.

I admire that he is coming clean now, but that is all. He is only sorry because he got caught.

To me, the real sad part is his 10 year old son, who was his staunch defender, until his dad had to tell him to stop defending him. How embarrassing for the boy. Things like that stay with a kid forever.

As for how good he really is/was? We will never know for sure, unfortunately.

[stretch]

Professional cycling has been dirty for decades and everybody
involved with the sport knows it. participating in the doping
doesn't make it honest.

Just like Clemens, Sosa, and Bonds, there was a rule in the sport
against doping. They knowingly broke the rules. Armstrong knowingly
broke the rules.

Armstrong cheated, lied about it, and now is going to be a snitch, too -
all for his own aggrandizement. Great athlete? Sure!!! But a liar, cheater,
bully, and snitch.

-Stretch

[guntar]

I would like to think that I would not yield to the temptation of pharmaceutically enhancing my abilities, but I will never know for sure. It seems like there are a number of thing about the whole Armstrong saga that probably should concern us more:

1. That he is a lost soul seems to be beyond doubt. We don't need to forget what he did, but we all need to pray that he fixes that most of all. Anyone who believes that he healed himself of cancer through his own efforts without the Great Healer, is screwed up a lot more than any of this doping problem will ever do to him.

2. Why was a branch of the U.S. government (that habitually runs in the red, and doesn't need the advertising impact), sponsoring that whole mess to start with?

3. Is there any connection between his sponsor having the most sophisticated bio-chemical labs in the world and his record of never busting a drug test?

4. We sports fans (and I plead guilty on this one), probably ought to be out doing more and watching less, in order to bring this type of situation into a lot better perspective. I, for one, don't worry a whole lot about the record of my favorite team when I am walking up on a bird dog on point.

Reading over all that, I guess it sounds a little preachy, but just some random things that went through my head.

[hfcable]

Seems like the athletic sports should emulate the shooting sports, and have a regular class, and an 'unlimited' class. The ones in the regular class would have to meet rules and be drug-tested or whatever, but the ones in unlimited could stoke up on whatever they want.

I agree 100%

[bdhold]

no matter what, he will never be forgotten.

[RIHMFIRE]

piece of excrement........

[stew71]

since he has been stripped of his titles. does the first place loser of each event he won get them now?

No...because the rest of them were taking PED's as well. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting someone who's taking that stuff.

[Ray Newman]

Solution: let athletes only train as did in the early 1900's using chewing tobacco, whiskey, and women....

[FWiedner]

Solution: Let professional athletes govern their bodies as they wish, and tie amatuer athletes hands according to the dictates of mommy figures and other sissies.