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| Joachim De Posada |
By Joachim De Posada
Website • Follow Me on Twitter • Follow on Facebook
Cheating to
win? Not even Lance Armstrong is entitled to it.
I have
mixed feelings in writing this article but I think the issue is important and
should be analyzed and thought about.
At 2 am
today I got an email from a major news source saying that Lance Armstrong was
going to be stripped of all his titles and that he would never ever be able to
race again.
I was
shocked. It definitely caught me by surprise.
But what
really shocked me even more was that he wasn’t going to stop fighting against
it. Even though quitting would mean giving up his seven Tour de France titles,
and never ever be able to participate in any kind of USADA races, he chose to
simply give up.
We are
talking about a superstar, a cyclist whose incredible victories after his
comeback from cancer helped him to become a super hero, in fact, transcend
sports.
Obviously,
besides being stripped of his titles, his name would be wiped out from the
record books of a sport he once dominated, was admired and hailed as the king.
Armstrong
probably knew his legacy would be stained by his decision. He said he had grown
tired of defending himself, in a perceived, never ending fight against charges
that he used drugs while winning more Tour victories than anyone in history.
He has, and
I have heard him say it, passed hundreds of drug tests that he had to submit to
during his incredible run of races from 1999 to 2005.
“There
comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say, “Enough is enough”. For
me, that time is now”.
He added,
“I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in
winning my seven Tours since 1999. The toll this has taken on my family and my
work for our foundation and on me leads me to where I am today-finished with
this nonsense.”
I think
this is a sad day for all of us who admired Lance Armstrong. It breaks my heart
to have to admit that the guy that I have cheered on and spoken about in many
of my speeches is actually a cheater.
In all
fairness, even in the event that he did dope himself in order to win, having
beaten cancer and gotten on top of that bicycle to pedal for hundreds of mails
in order to win a medal and represent his country is really to be admired.
But, to
cheat in doing so, takes away so much, really, takes away so much!
Even though
he said he wasn’t going to fight this anymore, he did say “I know who won those
seven Tours, my teammates know who won those seven Tours, and everyone I
competed against knows who won those seven Tours”.
Well, if
this is the case, why give up? Giving up is accepting that you might be guilty.
What about
10 of his teammates willing to testify that he did use drugs? This is clearly
not good for him and it might be one of the reasons he decided not to fight it.
What about a journalist that has covered him for many years and when
interviewed by CNN, said that he had no doubt that Armstrong used drugs?
Some of the
people close to him were caught up in the investigations. Bruyneel, the coach
of his teams, and three members of the medical staff and a consultant were also
charged.
Bruyneel is
taking his case to arbitration, while two medical team staffers and consulting
doctor Michelle Ferrari didn’t formally contest the charges and were issued
lifetime bans by USADA. Ferrari maintains he is innocent. Yet he was banned by
Italian authorities over doping charges in 2002. Also, former personal and team
assistants accused Armstrong of having steroids in an apartment in Spain and
getting rid of syringes that were used for injections of steroids.
There is a
recorded testimony from a former teammate, Frankie Andreu and his wife Betsy,
saying that Armstrong told doctors during his 1996 fight with cancer that he
had taken a bunch of steroids and performing enhancing drugs. .
I have to
think about this more much carefully. I just received the news, I am under a
deadline for this article and I haven’t had the time to really think about
this.
As of now,
I am against any athlete that has the attitude of win at all costs, making fun
of being fair and playing straight. I am against cheating or trying to gain an
unfair advantage over your competitors.
I used to
tell some of my athletes who did the sign of the cross before a race to not do
it because asking God to make you win was actually cheating. Why not win for
yourself without God’s intervention?
It was more
of a joke than anything else and we all had a good laugh about it but think
about it. If you need to pray in order to win, you are in bad shape and if you
don’t win, you will think that God let you down. Bad outcome whether you win or
lose.
There is
absolutely no glory in cheating to win, not even for Armstrong who came back
from a deadly disease and almost, almost became the number one cyclist in the
history of mankind. Now, everything has
been wiped out. What a shame!
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