Linux, Open Source, Free Software, Bicycles, and other topics of interest.
Lance Armstrong’s Doping – Will you forgive him ?
Lance Armstrong – the 7 times winner of Tour De France – who was later pronounced guilty of doping and stripped of all his medals, will you be able to forgive him ?
As a bicycle enthusiast, I am fascinated by professional cycle races. I have always watched the Tour De France when ever I could. And Lance Armstrong was right at the top of my list of most worthy professional bike racers.
The doping stigma changed all that. I felt let down that the person whom I cheered and rooted for all along had an unfair advantage over his fellow cyclists in winning the Tour De France races because he took banned substances.
In a just broadcast high profile interview with Oprah Winfrey, Lance Armstrong admitted to taking banned performance enhancing drugs to win races. You can watch the main video clips here.
However, even though Lance Armstrong’s doping is the most high profile cases, it may be the tip of the iceberg. It is perceived that many professional bikers do take banned drugs to enhance their performance. If this is true, it will take the sheen off cycling races, especially Tour De France.
Doping or not, guilty or not, Lance Armstrong has made lots of money in the process – his net worth is purportedly $125 million. He has a Twitter account with over quarter million followers. He heads is the founder of the non-profit organization Livestrong that helps cancer patients. He no longer heads the organization as clarified by this official statement.
But does that absolve him of his wrong doing ? Does it negate his cycling sins ?
I was reading Dave Moulton’s blog and he puts it right on the money -
In any race, or in any sport for that matter, there are only a handful of competitors capable of winning; the rest make up the field, and without them there would be no race, or no game. There would be no Tour de France if there were only 20 top riders, there has to be a field of 150 riders for the top 20 to emerge from.
Back in Roman times, Gladiators fought to the death. Fun for the spectators; not so much for the competitors. Modern sports are combat without killing, or war without tears. Sports should teach children that life is a struggle, and it takes hard work and dedication to get ahead. But you can still have fun doing it.
It should also teach children about fair play; it is not okay to cheat, or bully your way to the top, with a win at all costs attitude. People who do that in real life are called “Assholes.”
I concur with what Dave Moulton says 100%.