I see that Lance Armstrong has decided to forego continued battle with the USADA. Here is his “surrender” piece, http://www.usatoday.com/sports/cycling/08-22-12%20lance%20final.pdf .
Seems like a good idea. He has better things to do than to continue battle with a bureaucracy with unlimited (i.e., taxpayer provided) funds and that appears to be more interested in getting a “conviction” than in seeking the truth of the matter. The only remaining question is to ask why in the hell our society appears so intent on destroying anyone somewhat heroic?
1. Armstrong has a few bucks himself.
2. The USADA is not a court of law. They cannot convict anyone of anything. 3. Mr Armstrong had an opportunity to present his case to the USADA and confront any accusations and accusers that the USADA would bring. He first chose to avoid this opportunity for due process by suing the USADA in court. This was laughed out as he did not (at that time) use this due process, for reasons of his own.
3. Instead of availing himself of the due process procedure that the USADA provides in such a situation, where he could confront the eyewitnesses that were to be presented, including several former teammates, he chose to fold. Draw your own conclusions.
4. Pedaling a bicycle is not to my way of thinking somewhat heroic. Nor, does his behavior in this matter pass the smell test. Like Jerry Sandusky, another who yapped about his innocence (through his Saul Goodman clone lawyer), and swore he would be vindicated when all the evidence was out, he shut up.
BTW the Cowardly Cajun has included Armstrong in “The Brotherhood Of Straight White Christian Males Who Have Been Oppressed and Discriminated Against Because They Are Not Immediately Escorted To The Front Of The Line.”
Ed, USADA had a slew of Armstrong’s former teammates set to “rat out” poor Lance. Floyd Landis (Armstrong’s teammate) won the 2006 Tour de France and was subsequently stripped of that title after testing positive for PEDs. I’m convinced that virtually every other contestant in that race also used some form of PEDs.
For Lance Armstrong, there was no good way out of this. I have no doubt Lance Armstrong DID use PEDs. I also have little doubt that so DID virtually EVERY OTHER competitor in that (and most other) sports!
Lance Armstrong, Marion Jones, Ben Johnson, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Tiger Woods….hell, the SAME year they nabbed Ben Johnson, that very SAME Olympics Committee sent Karl Lewis no fewer than four letters suggesting they believed he had “banned substances” in his tests!
In the 1970s most athletes used amphetamines, by the early 1980s the best athletes were spending money on “blood doping,” taking some blood from the body, separating the plasma, freezing it, and reinjecting those extra red blood cells into the body prior to a race or other performance.
By the mid to late 1980s HGH was coupled with synthetic testosterone to increase overall performance and increase longevity.
HGH is a repair hormone and, among other benefits, it helps athletes recover from injuries faster. In MLB, they do a once a year blood test (at the start of the season) and only urine tests thereafter. So, there’s no way for MLB to check for HGH use among players, given that, to date testing for HGH requires bloodwork.
We currently exist in the initial stages of the enhanced human. In the relatively near future, genetic engineering will render PEDs obsolete.
BUT people take their sports seriously. They like to think “it’s all on the level,” and IF (as I suspect) virtually every athlete is availing themselves of such enhancements, then, at least to some degree, it is “on the level.” YES, the best labs, the best “enhancers” will probably prove their value by consistently delivering the best performers. That too, is the world we all live in. Some people naively want to believe in “cheaters” and “non-cheaters,” when the FACT is that every good athlete uses EVERY available advantage! “If you’re NOT “cheating,” you’re NOT trying.” STILL, people are funny about sports! They look at baseball or football or whatever, like they did when they were nine years old.
Sports is entertainment. Sports is BIG business and Derek Jeter, Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong’s value is predicated upon their ability to draw fans (“to put fannies in seats,” as they say), SAME as it is for Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington or Justin Bieber.
The same idiots wouldn’t blink an eye over some actor using PEDs to look better for a part, but they think the sky is falling when Marion Jones or Lance Armstrong use PEDs to perform better!
This is the world we live in. These (PEDs, etc) are the new parameters of this world.
Many people just don’t think things out very well. You can’t compare Barry Bonds, or Roger Maris to Babe Ruth. . .Ruth hit a virtual wet sock out of cavernous ball parks. When Ruth hit 60 home runs in a season, he hit more home runs that year than ANY OTHER TEAM did! You can’t even compare Barry Bonds to hank Aaron! TWO very different eras!
Likewise you can’t compare Roger Clemens (or ANY modern pitcher) to Cy Young, who won 511 games! He pitched in 815 and finished 749 (complete games)…he pitched an astounding 7,355 innings! Again, a VERY different era!
BUT the “kid” in people has them believing that such different eras, with such widely different parameters are perfectly comparable. That’s why baseball’s numbers (ESPECIALLY) are so hallowed – it’s all rooted in that flawed childlike illogic that compares vastly different eras AS IF they were the same.
Barry Bonds is the greatest power hitter of the “modern era.” He bested other great power hitters (ie McGwire and Sosa) who also used PEDs!
At some point, some genetically re-engineered athlete will play at a very high level through his fifties, perhaps through his sixties and surpass Bonds (or A-Rod’s, if he passes Bonds) mark and the same sorts of people will feel that THAT GUY “cheated.”
The PED genie is OUT of the bottle and it’s only the very beginning.
Recently Melky Cabrera & Bartolo Colon were caught using PEDs, those who think “only 3% to 5% of the League is using PEDs” are nuts! I believe Victor Conte’s recent estimate of 60% is very low. IF the stars are using, then the guys at the bottom, fighting for their jobs are DEFINITELY using, as are the guys in the Minors with a shot to make it, and given that, then everyone in between is also incentivized to use PEDs as well!
PEDs are merely a tool to be used by athletes, who’ll use ANY and EVERY tool at their disposal to better their performances.
PEDs are the very beginning. We are in the stone age of human enhancement.
I don’t doubt that Lance Armstrong or Marion Jones or Ben Johnson used PEDs, I simply believe their competitors did too! I lost a lot of respect for Karl Lewis, when he threw Ben Johnson under the bus, when it was clear that he wasn’t “clean” himself.
I have no doubt that Armstrong, Jones and Johnson were “the best of the best” of their respective eras,” because I’m sure their competitors had access to and used te SAME PEDs.
The history of the Tour de France is pretty much the history of PEDs. Personally, I don’t care much what a pro athlete does.