Why then when Armstrong has never tested positive for an illegal substance during his illustrious career and is now in retirement, has the US Anti-Doping Agency continued to relentlessly pursue charges that he used performance enhancing drugs, even when he has not been found guilty after a 2-year federal investigation and when the International Cycling Union claims his innocence? What is Travis Tygart, Chief Executive at USDA, trying to achieve in discrediting Lance Armstrong of his cycling success? ''It's a sad day for all of us who love sport and our athletic heroes,'' Travis Tygart, chief executive of the US Anti-Doping Agency, said. ''It's yet another heartbreaking example of how the win-at-all-costs culture, if left unchecked, will overtake fair, safe and honest competition.''
First of all, who really believes that cycling competitions such as the Tour De France are mostly clean but for a few cheats? Recent winners Floyd Landis and Alberto Contador have been stripped of their titles due to positive drug tests. What about many more positive tests of prominent cyclists in The Tour. Many of the guys who placed behind Lance have subsequently been banned for drugs, so who should his titles now go to? The sport is obviously as dirty as body building and needs to be cleaned up but when Armstrong has tested positive hundreds of times, never had a negative test, and inspired so many young and old athletes and cancer sufferers, what is to be gained by an endless battle by the US Anti-Doping Agency to bring him down? Most will agree that the world is a better place for Lance Armstrong’s cycling career and triumph against cancer. I would love to ask Travis Tygart if he thought the same. I don’t know Travis, but seeing him interviewed on TV tonight, he does not look like he ever was much of an athlete, let alone someone who would understand how much work and sacrifice an elite athlete puts in to getting to that level, with no career to fall back on, dysfunctional personal relationships outside your team mates, where only a select few succeed – something most armchair experts have no idea about.
So let’s say Lance was guilty, and remember he still claims innocence and never tested positive. His winning of seven Tours after life threatening cancer against his main rivals that have almost all actually tested positive is still an amazing feat. You can’t deny this guy is an amazing athlete and an inspiration whatever the case!
I’m not talking about Lance anymore and want to throw a little flack at the ‘lily white’ media. It always amazes me how the media will raise a sporting hero on a pedestal, then when this hero is disgraced for drug use or poor behavior, will be the first to claim astonishment and surprise and throw the guy down the gutter. I don’t know if this is done for a good story or to distance the media from having any prior knowledge of wrong doings. A good reporter has access to inside information and has to know what is going on in a sport, that there are drugs, college football recruiting parties and the like and if they don’t say anything before they are caught, they are gutless to feign ignorance and disgust after the fact.
After fighting the US Anti-Doping Agency witch hunt for years, I can understand how Lance is just tired and not willing to fight any more. He has left a great legacy and if he is stripped of his Tour victories, Lance’s cycling peers know that in his time he was the best there was, drugs or not, and who gives a xxx what Tygart thinks.
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