I am not a big cycling fan. In fact, if Lance Armstrong hadn't started winning multiple Tour de France events, it is possible I wouldn't even know it existed. However, Lance Armstrong did start winning those races, and then they started showing up on SportsCenter, mixed in with the major league baseball highlights I really wanted to see.
The more I learned about cycling, the more interested I got. It seemed like such a visceral test of will power. Yes, it took natural ability and strength, but more than anything it seemed to require an iron will. I got the feeling the riders who excelled were more than willing to find the limits of their physical endurance and then go cycling right on past.
Plus, this Lance Armstrong guy was pretty intriguing. He didn't just win all those races. He also beat cancer. Then he started a foundation to help other people who were fighting that same fight. He inspired many thousands of people to believe they could find a way to survive as well. Oh, and he started dating Sheryl Crow. He was at the absolute pinnacle of his profession, beloved by millions, and wrote several best-selling books, including It's not About the Bike.
And, of course, he cheated. A lot.
When allegations of his cheating first began to surface, I didn't pay too much attention. I had read that doping was rampant in cycling, and it was easy to believe that the guy who was kicking their butts was doping too.
But then the denials began. Most doping, cheating athletes make denials. It's part of the game plan. Yes, their hat sizes may be several sizes bigger and their jock straps several sizes smaller, but they continue to deny, deny, deny.
Lance Armstrong applied the same maximum effort to protecting his reputation as he did to every other aspect of his life. He wasn't satisfied with being defensive when he was accused of cheating, he went on the offensive. His accomplishments had made him wealthy and powerful and he didn't hesitate to use that to crush people who had the nerve to tell the truth about him. He hired lawyers to sue people that didn't have the wherewithal to defend themselves. He used his bully pulpit to do just that - bully.
It was only when he wanted to do something that he wasn't allowed to do that he finally decided to "come clean." When he was given a lifetime ban from cycling, he was also given a ban from running triathlons at the highest level. He wanted to run those triathlons again eventually, and he hoped that by finally admitting to the drug use, he would eventually be allowed to do so.
Here's the thing. I understand the doping. In an environment where many of his competitors were also cheating, it was easy to justify in his own mind that he was just leveling the playing field. I even understand the concept of defending himself. With the personality necessary to push himself to the extremes he did physically, some of those defense mechanisms were automatic.
Still... when he coldly set about to systematically damage people he knew were telling the truth about him, he stepped over a moral line I can't find a way to justify. He showed himself to be the worst kind of schoolyard bully. There were ways this scenario could have played out where he might have been deserving of pity. Instead, he deserves nothing but scorn.
The more I learned about cycling, the more interested I got. It seemed like such a visceral test of will power. Yes, it took natural ability and strength, but more than anything it seemed to require an iron will. I got the feeling the riders who excelled were more than willing to find the limits of their physical endurance and then go cycling right on past.
Plus, this Lance Armstrong guy was pretty intriguing. He didn't just win all those races. He also beat cancer. Then he started a foundation to help other people who were fighting that same fight. He inspired many thousands of people to believe they could find a way to survive as well. Oh, and he started dating Sheryl Crow. He was at the absolute pinnacle of his profession, beloved by millions, and wrote several best-selling books, including It's not About the Bike.
And, of course, he cheated. A lot.
When allegations of his cheating first began to surface, I didn't pay too much attention. I had read that doping was rampant in cycling, and it was easy to believe that the guy who was kicking their butts was doping too.
But then the denials began. Most doping, cheating athletes make denials. It's part of the game plan. Yes, their hat sizes may be several sizes bigger and their jock straps several sizes smaller, but they continue to deny, deny, deny.
Lance Armstrong applied the same maximum effort to protecting his reputation as he did to every other aspect of his life. He wasn't satisfied with being defensive when he was accused of cheating, he went on the offensive. His accomplishments had made him wealthy and powerful and he didn't hesitate to use that to crush people who had the nerve to tell the truth about him. He hired lawyers to sue people that didn't have the wherewithal to defend themselves. He used his bully pulpit to do just that - bully.
It was only when he wanted to do something that he wasn't allowed to do that he finally decided to "come clean." When he was given a lifetime ban from cycling, he was also given a ban from running triathlons at the highest level. He wanted to run those triathlons again eventually, and he hoped that by finally admitting to the drug use, he would eventually be allowed to do so.
Here's the thing. I understand the doping. In an environment where many of his competitors were also cheating, it was easy to justify in his own mind that he was just leveling the playing field. I even understand the concept of defending himself. With the personality necessary to push himself to the extremes he did physically, some of those defense mechanisms were automatic.
Still... when he coldly set about to systematically damage people he knew were telling the truth about him, he stepped over a moral line I can't find a way to justify. He showed himself to be the worst kind of schoolyard bully. There were ways this scenario could have played out where he might have been deserving of pity. Instead, he deserves nothing but scorn.
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