By JASON GORDON
I believe Lance Armstrong did so much to raise money and, more importantly, awareness for cancer research nationwide that it will always be the biggest part of his legacy.
Armstrong recently decided to give up his fight against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), leading to a career ban from cycling and the likely stripping of all seven of his Tour de France titles.
As for his fight against cancer, the Lance Armstrong Foundation has raised since 1997 nearly a half-billion dollars for research.
According to Forbes magazine, the foundation has helped 2.5 million cancer survivors with free patient navigation services. There are more than 1,000 grassroots Livestrong Day events held in 65 countries annually to support the cancer battle.
Perhaps most important of all, Armstrong gave hope to millions who suffer from cancer.
My mother, for example, is a two-time cancer survivor. Her mother passed away from the disease at the way-too-young age of 64. She was diagnosed with cancer, and less than a month later she was gone.
Years ago I wrote about Ashley Fenton getting to play a cherished single minute in a varsity soccer game during her senior year at Hays High School while fighting the disease. She lost her battle at age 22, in 2003.
I doubt there are many people reading this who haven’t known someone directly or indirectly affected by this insidious disease.
The video images of Armstrong rebuilding his body and gaining strength through rehabilitation and cycling – when doctors gave him less than a 40 percent chance to live after his 1995 testicular cancer diagnosis – are indelible in the minds of not only sports fans, but fans of life around the world.
Lance Armstrong – and many others because of his foundation – beat the odds long after a doctor told him he would be long gone from this Earth.
That will always, in my opinion, be the most important part of Lance Armstrong’s legacy.
I also believe Lance Armstrong cheated.
Before his Oct. 1996 cancer diagnosis, Armstrong was a very good cyclist. He won two different Tour de France stages (there are 21 different stages in the yearly event) during his career, and won the Tour DuPont event in the United States.
After his remarkable recovery from cancer, which had spread to his lungs, abdomen and brain, he was ready to return to cycling less than 18 months after his initial diagnosis.
Along that road, Armstrong became a different man, a different athlete.
He was no longer an above-average professional cyclist, winning a Tour de France stage here and there and a Tour DuPont event in the U.S. that hasn’t been run since 1996.
As everyone knows, he became a Tour de Force, winning the prestigious Tour de France an unprecedented seven straight years from 1999-2005, dominating everyone in the world over the course that runs a daunting 2,200-miles through the mountain chains of the Pyrenees and the Alps, finishing on the Champs-Élysées.
Blood doping was rampant during that age of cycling; much like steroids was during baseball’s dark period from the late 1980s to the late 2000s.
Blood doping is the practice of boosting the number of red blood cells in the bloodstream in order to enhance athletic performance.
Armstrong’s defense has always been that he’s never failed a drug test, but as in baseball, the science of getting away with cheating always seems to be a step ahead of any scientist trying to develop a test to catch them.
I believe that no athlete can come back from what Armstrong went through in less than 18 months and become the best athlete his sport has ever seen. I never did believe it.
On May 20, 2010, former U.S. Postal teammate Floyd Landis accused Armstrong of blood doping in 2002 and 2003. In May 2011, former Armstrong teammate Tyler Hamilton said he and Armstrong had together taken EPO (erythropoietin), which stimulates red blood cell production if inserted into the body, before and during the 1999, 2000 and 2001 Tours de France. Synthetic EPO, when administered to a human, typically by injection, can be abused by athletes to gain a competitive advantage in sport, according to USADA scientists.
The “60 Minutes” investigation alleged that two other former Armstrong teammates, Frankie Andreu and George Hincapie, have told federal investigators they witnessed Armstrong taking banned substances, including EPO, or had supplied Armstrong with such substances.
Landis was stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title due to blood doping. Hamilton also tested positive for doping and was ultimately suspended; and Andreu later admitted to blood doping during his career. Hincapie recently competed in a record 17th Tour de France this summer, although “60 Minutes” claimed Hincapie testified to a U.S. federal investigation into doping, that he and Armstrong had taken EPO together.
I want to be able to defend Lance Armstrong, but I can’t – I believe he finally met his match in the USADA.
It appears the scientists, and the evidence, finally caught up to Armstrong. And he knew it.
According to Reuters, the USADA said in a letter to Armstrong that it has blood samples from 2009 and 2010 that are “fully consistent” with doping.
Michael McCann, an expert in sports law at Vermont Law School, said that Armstrong’s decision to not contest the USADA charges in arbitration might have been the cyclist’s best option in the face of mounting circumstantial evidence.
“This gives his supporters reason to support him,” McCann told Reuters. “Whereas if he had gone to arbitration and lost – which I think almost definitely would have happened – from a public relations standpoint, that would have been much more harmful.”
So perhaps Lance is both a winner and a loser in this battle. I truly believe most people would forgive the fact Lance cheated to achieve his fame, for all the good that’s come of it. In fact, the day Armstrong announced he was giving up his fight against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, contributions to his foundation increased more than 25 times compared to the day before.
Cheating ran rampant in his sport during his era, and one could argue that you almost had to do it to keep up with the times.
But that doesn’t change the fact that I do indeed believe Lance was a cheater. It also doesn’t change my opinion of him as one who raised both money and cancer awareness to extraordinary heights worldwide.
Perhaps the only thing that is unquestioned when it comes to Lance Armstrong is that his legacy will always be filled with unanswered questions and controversy.
