The Scum Also Rises
by Casey Barrett
The loathsome Lance Armstrong finally throws in the towel… Thereby acknowledging what the entire world already knew: that there is no one lower in all of sports…
It’s late August, the Olympics are over, and unless you’re off racing Prince Harry drunk in a Vegas hotel pool, you’re probably enjoying some well earned time on dry land. So, let’s set swimming aside for the moment and take a dip into some real pond scum.
On Thursday, Lance Armstrong officially ended his doomed fight against charges that he used performance-enhancing drugs. He refused to fight another day for his “innocence.” So, he finally admitted it? Ha. Of course not. This is Lance you’re talking about, the most arrogant sociopath ever to peddle a bicycle. While it’s clear that his lawyers finally informed him that the game was up, he’s still denying it to the end. Check out his self-righteous statement posted on his site. Actually, don’t bother. You’ve heard those impotent raging denials enough.
Whether he likes it or not, here is the disgraced company that Lance Armstrong can now officially join: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Ben Johnson, Marion Jones, Michelle Smith, the 1990’s Chinese swim teams, the 1970’s & 80’s East German swim teams… Ok, too exhausting to continue.
Just look at the records set by that distinguished crew! He must be so proud. I mean, he insists that winning those seven Tours is enough. That’s what people will always remember, right Lance? The performance will transcend the fraud, won’t it? When I think of Barry and Mark and Sammy, all I remember is those towering homers. When I think of Ben and Marion, all I remember is super fast gold medal sprinting. And when I think of those ladies in the pool, all I recall is their world record shattering swims. And how hot they were. Who can forget that?
That’s known as sarcasm, Lance. A humorless hateful fellow like yourself might have trouble with that concept. It takes a bit of self-awareness to get the joke, and we all know that’s something you’ve always lacked.
Am I being too hard on the poor little yellow-shirted Texan? After all, he’s inspired so many with his Live Strong foundation. A foundation that’s said to have raised almost half a billion dollars in the fight against cancer. At what point does his essential soullessness cease to matter? After a billion dollars raised? After Live Strong funds the creation of a magic cancer-killing pill?
If you’ve been touched by the death rattle of cancer, and who hasn’t, this is what makes Lance so impossible to reconcile. He is the Bernie Madoff of sports. He built it all on a lie. Yet, unlike Madoff’s victims, those who bought into Lance’s Live Strong rhetoric were often profoundly inspired and strengthened. The inspiration he offered was spun from a load of shit, but does that diminish the collective power of those yellow bracelets?
To be honest, I’ve been a card-carrying member of the Lance Hating Brigade for many years. It always seemed so obvious. He always seemed like such a fundamentally bad human. Just ask any members of the press who’ve ever worked a Tour de France. All doping aside, the guy has always been a dick. But whatever, so are plenty of other sporting icons, from Joe DiMaggio to Michael Jordan. An ugly personality does not diminish those achievements for one second.
But cheating to get there? Cheating and then lying and lying and lying and lying, and then lying some more. And then tearing apart the characters of all those sad sacks who once cheated with you, and then came forward to clear their consciences?
Loathsome Lance, you took this whole dirty business to a new level. Even Barry and Roger must step aside in their quiet moments and think – Dude, I’d sue my own son, but at least I’m not Lance…
Cap & Goggles 
The bumper sticker says “Don’t believe everything you think”
When proof is shown via failed drug tests then your blog entry would be valid but currently, with no proof, you have allowed your dislike for an athlete to cloud your objectivity, in my opinion.
As the parent of 2 swimmers and as a fan – I hear comments all the time (from non swimmers) about an individual making the Olympic team @ 40+, 8 Gold medals in 1 Olympics …. they have to be using something. All Dara and Michael can do is prove they are clean via extra testing ….. but wait, you “know” that Lance was cheating but yet he has been tested hundreds of times ……
Have Michael and Dara been cheating all these years – simply because they have done things that are amazing …….
But who would give up 7 Tour de France victories unless they were guilty??
Someone who is tired of fighting a fight that people like Casey Barrett would continue to fight…with no failed test. Who wants to listen to ex-teammates, people who wanted to be the best, say they know he took things but cannot prove it? I can say Casey Barrett is a stoner and I saw him do it…that does not prove he did it!
Brian, if you saw me smoke a bowl, not to worry, I won’t deny. Guilty as charged!
Last time I checked, neither Dara nor Michael have 10 people lined up to testify under oath they saw either of those two cheating. Armstrong, on the other hand, has a group of people who are more than just “haters” ready to throw him until the peloton.
Phelps was a child prodigy, he was owner of many age-group records, in fact, I think some of them stand even today, so, unless they dope 12-year-old kids there in USA, do not put Phelps into the same sentence with Armstrong.
Did you know that Lance actually started his sort involvement as a swimmer.
Liquidassets- perhaps Armstrong’s hoping that UCI who has the actual jurisdiction to strip him of his TdF victories and who has, so far, been standing behind him, would dismiss USADA/WADA allegations.
As fan of both cycling and swimming, I view the two sports quite differently. In cycling, achievements aren’t usually measured in medals and world record, so even if Lance was stripped of his TdF victories, in 20 to 30 years from now, you can still view those climbs up Sestrières and Luz Ardiden and still be awed regardless of the doping charges. It’s an arrestingly visual sport which is why Eddy Mercx is still a legend and names like Copi, Pantani and Anquetil are still on every cyclists’ best rider-ever lists. While I don’t condone drug use in sport, I don’t believe in a blanket treatment to every doping infraction regardless of the sports.
All of the people lined up to go after Armstrong are people who failed their tests. Still makes no sense to me that he has not failed a single test and he is being crushed. 500 tests without failing means he was clean. He had the same team as many other people who failed their tests.
i don’t know if Lance was cheating or not (my guess is yes but i don’t know). But he was a bad-ass triathlete and cyclist when he was a 12 year old every bit as much as Phelps was for swimming.
Chris, I honestly wish I shared your faith in drug tests as the conclusive burden of proof. Unfortunately, they’re not. Cheaters have always been, and will always be, a step ahead of those trying to catch them. That, as much as anything else, defines the nature of performance enhancing drugs and the dignity-free athletes who take them. The only athletes who test positive are the Dirty and the Dumb. Lance might be guilty as hell, but he is not dumb. Indeed, he has been an evil genius over the years when it comes to staying one step ahead of those chasing him. Nonetheless, he can pass a thousand tests, but there remains an overwhelming amount of clear evidence that he cheated – not just circumstantial, but in the form of eye witnesses. A court of law would have convicted him with their testimony. With regards to your unfortunate comparison to Dara and Michael, please see Jamie’s comment.
Too many stories of Lance for too many years. If there is such a thing as guilt by association, there is none guiltier than Lance Armstrong. It seems nearly everyone associated with his inner circle had somehow become tarnished with drug scandal over the years. You can judge a man by the friends he keeps. There is a lot to be disgusted with in the Lance saga but seeing him throw teammates and friends under the bus and dive for cover behind cancer victims every time USADA or the media were at his electrified gates is, uh, whoa!
There is some sweet vindication for those who were so bold to vocally suspect Lance Armstrong of cheating over the years…
Sweet vindication.
The evidence weighs heavily against this former first-past-the-post cyclist – and you pointed it out. You have a right to do so – and good reason to do so. As for the need of positive tests in order that such issues should be debated: not a single GDR swimmer ever tested positive (officially); neither did Miss Jones… it took a confession – the testing regime has, to date, not been where it would need to be. Keep up the good work Casey.
Maybe if he lost his other testicle all would be forgiven.
That’s what some people would call “karma,” but I suppose that’s a bit mean.
I just cant respect or feel sorry for a man who hurls his unfortunate bout with cancer as a force shield against those who are trying to out him and keep their sport clean. Playing the victim card makes me cringe.
If the burden or proof for stripping medals / Tour wins is guilt by association or “testimony” from individuals who have already failed drug tests then I think it becomes a slippery slope. As Casey commented about my original post “The only athletes who test positive are the Dirty and the Dumb” so if (and I admit the only testimony the public is aware of is Tyler and Floyd) the testimony of Tyler and Floyd is that they participated with Lance why did they get caught with positive test(s) and Lance has not. Did those 2 just not pay attention to how to successfully cheat and not get caught, did they just not have the financial resources to be as successful at cheating?
I am not advocating that Lance is not guilty but rather attempting to advocate for following the process that is the rules currently in place before an athlete can be branded guilty. If speculation, association, and dislike for a person is “proof” enough for branding them a cheat then I think the future of outlier success in sports is bleak. I felt the same when when a certain coach made comments about a certain Chinese swimmer after her 400 IM win.
Those that were vocally suspicious have caught holy hell from Lance defenders for years. In any crime eye witness testimony, let alone from ten professionally linked associates, is pretty damning in a courtroom setting. I’m sure this will see the course of due process, but it seems the wind blows pretty hard in a certain direction at this time.
How many of the 10 people are, themsleves, “cheaters” in the cycling world?
Point well made. Though lance just seems like a scumbag.
What I am concerned with is – who, if anyone, will be recognized as the Tour champions for all those years? Wasn’t the 2nd place finisher doping too? And all the top ten?
Cycling is a dirty sport in general. The evidence suggests Lance cheated, but so did many others. How many winners have been caught? Just look at Wikipedia for the number of positive doping cases. The number of people caught suggests the problem runs deep into the sport. Dick or not, he is the best of the dirtiest.
Then Lance’s argument at this particular juncture should be this argument that everyone in the sport is doping. He’s already thrown so many under the bus he should follow suit, and like Tyler and Floyd, and tell all. Throw everybody under the bus, Lance! Do it! It’s his best hope at minimally salvaging what is proving to be an ugly career (and hero role) ending train wreck.
I agree Gary, but I also think this tact has to have been considered in his response to the allegations over the years. This presents a very slippery slope with so few positive drug tests out there among the tour riders relative to the general consensus that they’re all doing it. Anyone who follows the Tour seems to watch it with the mental disclaimer that those guys are all doped. In a relative sense, Lance more than likely won his titles on seemingly equal footing. So to that end, this whole thing seems to be a bit of a witch hunt fuled by general distaste for Lance’s personality and racing tactics. For Lance to finally come clean on the whole thing with a sweeping indictment of the sport as a whole would be a PR nightmare for that guy, and he’s probably just not willing to do it. He could do a lot to clean up the sport by coming out and spilling the real story, but I think he would trash his legacy even more. Just like there are those few out there that believe OJ was innocent, there are still those few out there that hang on to the lack of positive drug tests to “prove” Lance was clean. I guess I also don’t fully understand why Lance is the only one being thrown under the bus. Did Tyler and Floyd not say that he was organizing the whole doping regimen for the Postal team? Why aren’t the other Postal guys being investigated…or are they? Obviously with 7 victories Lance is a lightning rod for this whole issue…the doping poster child so to speak. But he seems to be singled out as a dirty rider in what is generally conceded to be a dirty sport. So what’s the point? Why is UCI not the focus…why are the other tour riders/winners not being impicated in a broader investigation? Lance wasn’t necessarily the problem…the issue runs far deeper than Lance himslef.
Is it not all relative? Is cycling not notorious for doping throughout its ranks? I read something recently claiming that all but 1 of the last 8 tour winners have been caught up in some type of doping scandal…bearing in mind the very loose citation this does tend to question the legitimacy of UCI’s methods and policies. So who is actually considered a legitimate tour winner? For all his faults, Lance still smoked all those other dopers in the mountains.
I don’t have much doubt that Lance doped. But what I want to know is in each of the 7 years that he won, how many of the riders finishing 2-10 were also doping.I’ve always felt that at the top of cycling, it is a level playing field–most are doping. It would be pretty naive to think that only Lance was able to beat the test regimen.
Here’s the problem with the Everyone Else Was Doing It defense – it accepts, and hence condones, the act of cheating itself. There’s no question that all those riders that Lance beat were also doped. No question at all. He won on a level playing field in that sense, a field of play that was probably the filthiest in the history of sport. But as the king of that dirty kingdom, Lance put a target on his back. He’s the king of the cheaters. Is it any wonder that he provokes such fervor to catch him and prove what the drug tests don’t? Barry Bonds is his closest peer. Like Bonds, Lance didn’t need drugs to become one of the all time greats. They both had the talent and the drive to become Hall of Famers without drugs. But their egos, their lack of dignity, and their disrespect for their sport, led them down the same dark road that so many others chose. This makes them tragic. It also makes them the biggest disgraces of all.
It wasn’t a defense. There is a no defense. All this is old news. Even the moral outrage.
This all begs the question of why just Lance? Why is USADA using the testimony of admitted dopers who claim so many others were doing it too to just focus on an indictment of Lance Armstrong? One judge who reviewed the testimony asked the same thing…what’s the motivation in singling this guy out over what would seem to be a more productive approach of reviewing the testing procedures and initiatives as a whole? If it is generally condeded amongst fans and participants alike that the sport is tainted, why is Lance the sole focus? If they’re all doing it, then it almost doesn’t seem like cheating…just seems like part of the training regimen for a sport that seems to require it of the participants…that seems to be the greater fault.
i agree with WMOORE. why just Lance? Since the USADA is government funded and thus controlled to some degree, all i can think of is that he pissed off someone with a connection. Knowing him he probably slept with someone’s wife (and then dumped her when she got cancer).
It wasn’t just Lance. Many people have been implicated in the same USADA investigation. Indeed, Lance was given the same opportunity as everyone else to come clean about his doping. Had he taken this opportunity, he probably would have been stripped of his last two tdf titles, but kept the others, which are outside the 8 yr statute of limitations. All of the other players have reportedly either come clean with the investigators and will have their punishments revealed in due course or have agreed to arbitration (Bruyneel, Ferrari). Lance is now being charged with doping conspiracy which has no statute of limitation.
Lance was a freakishly gifted athlete and one of the fiercest competitors ever. He raced with ruthless precision and never passed up the opportunity to gain an advantage or exploit a weakness. When he became a professional cyclist he saw the doping system and not only accepted it, he embraced and became the best at it. Cycling has many unwritten rules that the public may not understand but the entire peloton agrees to follow (for the most part). Lance just considered doping to be one of them. I believe in his mind he was playing by the rules as he understood them. But that doesn’t make it right.
I feel like all of this has been said before and better. At this point anyone still standing up for Lance who has actually looked at all of the available evidence is operating at a level of cognitive dissonance that I just can’t seem to muster.
A nice one from our friends at Deadspin: http://deadspin.com/5938095/an-all+time-great-lance-armstrong-being-a-dick-story
A measured response answering almost all of the claims and protestations of the Lance supporters/apologists (and certainly the ones raised in this thread):
http://www.sportsscientists.com/2012/08/the-armstrong-fallout-thoughts-and.html
Great article Casey.
Great article…thanks for posting Dennis! Covers a lot of the questions us casual observers have and plainly spells out the scope of the USADA investigation. Hard to imagine the Tour will ever be entirely clean, but it seems the “paradigm shift” in testing is making strides toward mitigating the extent and effectiveness of doping.
As a casual observer, I agree 100% with the author from the sportscientists.com article. Please do take the time to read it, especially if you’re not sure what to believe.
It is flat out DEPRESSING to see sooo many LA defenders. I feel that people should be careful in thier defense of the man… ask yourself is this a breeding ground for more dope/vermin in sport. I think the reactions reveal more than anything… that cheating can be justified.
A wise man once wrote that “declaring total conviction on either side of a cheating debate is foolish.”
Let’s forget about test results & eyewitness testimony. Both must be considered in doping cases, but neither is entirely reliable. The public debate over the Armstrong saga has been a textbook study in confirmation bias. I’m done trying to convince people that this latest chapter, the USADA charges, is unfair & unjust. I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to go through such a process if I knew he was guilty, & I certainly wouldn’t want my best friend to endure it if he was innocent. But I’m starting to get a wider perspective. Fairness is not necessarily the point of a USADA, WADA, or UCI investigation. In the end, more than piss tests, blood passports, & vindictive tribunals ever could, Lance’s crucifixion may be the deterrent that finally washes away the sins of the cyclists. Until the next thing comes along…
Dear Lance Apologists,
He played you. How’s it feel?
Cheers,
Oprah