LANCE  ARMSTRONG:  The  emperor  who  wore  no  clothes

The difference is type size and background is of no significance to the text. It is merely an anomaly in the printing.

Hans Christian Andersen wrote the story of two weavers who promised an Emperor a new suit of clothes that would be invisible only to those of his followers who were unfit for their positions either because they were stupid or because they were incompetent. When the Emperor got on his horse and then paraded down the street before his other subjects in his new clothes, a child cried out, “The emperor isn't wearing any clothes at all.” He saw the emperor as he really was—naked as a new-born baby.  

Lance Armstrong is the modern-day emperor who has the audacity to parade about in what he believes are clothes that are also invisible to those of his followers who are stupid and incompetent. His problem is that he thinks everyone else is stupid and incompetent also and don’t see him for what he really is—naked as a new-born baby.

Alas, his followers don`t realize that they are being attracted to this lying cheat because they see him wearing in what they believe is in all his finery when in fact he is wearing nothing at all. The evidence of their stupidity is clear proof that their brain cells are being zapped by the attractive light of their beloved emperor of the cyclist riding profession.  

Lance Edward Armstrong (born Lance Edward Gunderson on September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road racing cyclist. He won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times between the years of 1999 and 2005. By doing this, he was regarded as the emperor of completive cyclist racing.

This so-called emperor is now suffering the same kind of fate that the late Gaddafi; the deposed leader of Libya faced after he was dragged out of a drainage pipe while fleeing from his angry people he ruled. Armstrong has been rhetorically pulled out of the sewer he created for himself and now is appearing to those who trusted him and believed in him as a muck-ridden specimen who has forced decent people to pinch their noses while in his presence because of his stink even though he constantly maintained that he was smelling like roses.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) on October 10^th 2012 released its evidence against Lance Armstrong that is a massive dossier of more than 1,000 pages which comprises of sworn testimony from 26 people, including 15 cyclists who had personal knowledge of Armstrong's doping activities when he was a member of the U.S. Postal Service Cycling team. The evidence includes testimony from cyclist George Hincapie, a long time close associate of Armstrong who admitted to investigators his own role in the doping conspiracy and had told investigators what he knew about others who were taking dope to enhance their cycling abilities.

In a statement, USADA chief executive Travis Tygart said, ”The evidence shows beyond any doubt that the US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.”

On August 24, 2012, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced it had imposed a sanction of lifetime ineligibility and disqualification of competitive results achieved since August 1, 1998, on United States athlete Lance Armstrong. His sanction was announced at that time by USADA because he had notified USADA that he was refusing to contest the evidence against him in a hearing before neutral arbitrators. USADA had reached out to Armstrong, communicating with four of his attorneys and giving Armstrong the opportunity to come in and sit down with USADA and cooperate with USADA’s investigation as had many of Armstrong’s teammates. Armstrong, however, refused to meet with USADA, setting in motion the sequence of events that led to USADA’s charges and ultimately to Armstrong’s sanction by USADA

I think it is obvious as to why he didn’t contest the results of the evidence against him. Among the evidence in this case were the sworn statements of more than two dozen witnesses, including fifteen professional cyclists, and a dozen members of Armstrong’s cycling teams, including eleven former teammates and his former masseuse. The evidence in this case also included banking and accounting records from a Swiss company controlled by Dr. Ferrari reflecting more than one million dollars made in 10 payments by Armstrong, extensive email communications between Dr. Ferrari and his son and Armstrong during a time period in which Armstrong claimed to not have a professional relationship with Dr. Ferrari. There was also a vast amount of additional data, including laboratory test results and expert analysis of Armstrong’s blood test results showing positive tests of doping on his part.

 The evidence facing him was like a tidal wave. There is no way to fight a tidal wave head on. The only escape available is to flee from it. Unfortunately for Armstrong, it over whelmed him and his refusal to face it head on resulted in his credibility being swept away; never to surface again.

USADA also had direct evidence, including admissions to, and eyewitness testimony from, his teammate George Hincapie that Armstrong was blood doping in 2005. Hincapie has testified that, “from my conversations with Lance Armstrong and experiences with Lance and the team, I am aware that Lance used blood transfusions from 2001 through 2005.” unquote

Blood doping is the practice of boosting the number of red blood cells in the bloodstream in order to enhance athletic performance. Because such blood cells carry oxygen from the lungs to the muscles, a higher concentration of oxygen in the blood can improve an athlete’s aerobic capacity and endurance. Red blood cells are uniquely suited to this process because they can be concentrated, frozen and later thawed with little loss of viability. In an autologous transfusion, the athlete's own red blood cells are harvested well in advance of any competition and then re-introduced before the actual event.

 Taking dope enhancing drugs and doing blood transfusions is cheating in any sport where winning in a competition is the primary goal of the sports person. As I see it, there is no place in any sport for those who cheat to win. The USADA recognizes this and correctly sanctioned Armstrong from ever participating as a cyclist that is sponsored by recognized international cyclist competitions. 

Now some people will say that Armstrong should be given a second chance. Remember Ben Johnson who won the gold in a track meet in The Olympics held in South Korea? He was given a second chance and again he took enhanced drugs so that he would have an edge over other competitors. He was subsequently barred for life from participating in the Olympics.

On October 1, 2004 Dr. Ferrari was convicted of sporting fraud by an Italian court for advising Italian cyclists on the use of EPO and Andriol. Subsequently the Ferrari conviction was a potentially severe blow to Armstrong’s reputation, and Armstrong moved aggressively to meet it. He publicly stated;

“I was disappointed to learn of the Italian court’s judgment against Dr. Michele Ferrari. Dr. Ferrari has been a long-time friend and trusted adviser to me and the USPS team, during which time he never suggested, prescribed or provided me with any performance-enhancing drugs.” unquote

He later said that he would never work with Dr. Ferrari ever again.  That turned out to be a bald-faced lie. Ferrari continued to work with Armstrong along with Armstrong’s teammates, George Hincapie and Tom Danielson through 2005.

On March 29, 2005, Armstrong wired Ferrari one hundred thousand dollars to the

Swiss account of Health & Performance.  Also in March 2005, he also attended

a training camp with Dr. Ferrari on the island of Tenerife.

Armstrong’s false representation to the public that he had stopped working with Ferrari despite Armstrong’s continuing relationship with Ferrari, created a doubly strong adverse implication that Armstrong was doping just he had done at Dr. Ferrari’s direction in the past. It makes his denial about not getting enhancing drugs from Dr. Ferrari highly suspicious. 

Doesn’t all of this evidence convince even the stoutest supporters of Armstrong that he is not only an outright cheat; he is also an outright liar? Armstrong lied for so long and so many times even while his edifice was crumbling down on him, it is impossible for him to rebuild it again. This cheat’s credibility has completely disappeared under the rubble and it is highly unlikely that anyone really wants to go to the trouble to help him recover it.

This is why Lance Armstrong, (just as Ben Johnson) should never be given a second chance to compete in any international or national cycling competitions.

On September 9^th, 2008, Lance Armstrong announced that he was making a comeback from retirement and would return to professional cycling. During 2009 Armstrong rode for the Astana Cycling Team which was coached by Johan Bruyneel and finished third in the Tour de France. In 2010 Armstrong rode for the newly organized Radio Shack team and finished 23rd in the Tour. Armstrong retired again from professional cycling on February 16, 2011.

It wasn’t until August 24^th, 2012 that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency decided that they didn’t want anything more to do with Lance Armstrong. This doesn’t mean that other agencies from other countries won’t permit him to cycle as a competitor or even for that matter, to coach competing cylists.  However, I think that all authorities running cycling competitions should be very wary if they see this man anywhere near a competition being held, no matter what capacity he is in.

Admittedly it is hard to ignore the fact that he built up a charity combatting cancer out of some of his own money however the money he used was money he received from sponsors and those that made the contributions as a result of his fundraising who had no idea whatsoever that he was winning his cycling competitions by cheating. He resigned from the Livestrong charity that began through his efforts and which has generated $33.8-million so far this year, up 2.1% over last year, while year-over-year donations are up 5.4%. I don’t think that the charity should be blamed for what Armstrong did but I do believe that it would be a very big mistake to have him appear at any even sponsored by Livestrong.

His yellow wristbands represented the fight against cancer. But what is to become of them now, and what does it mean to wear one — for those who still do? Twitter crackled with pictures of wristbands that had been cut or discarded in garbage cans by people who originally wore them.

The following sponsors have dumped him. They are;  

• Anheuser-Busch (won't renew contract, no more Michelob ads)
• Trek (the gear company that made every bike Armstrong rode in the Tours)
• RadioShack
• FRS (energy drink maker)
• Honey Stinger (energy foods maker)
• Easton-Bell (Giro helmet maker)

No doubt more of them will be following suit. Armstrong was estimated to be making $15-$18 million a year from his sponsorships, so the loss of these contracts is more than simply being humiliating. The corporations have little choice but to dump him. Companies can't be seen as condoning cheating, even when most of the competitors in the sport appear to have been doing it. They should also dump any other competitors who they sponsored if the competitors were doing the same thing that Armstrong was doping.

This slime ball was floating on the surface of muck coursing through a sewer and almost brought the competitive cycling profession to its knees. Fortunately, they have drained the sewer and hopefully, the remaining competitors are drug and blood doping free and the competition will regain the reputation of fair and honest sportsmanship it once had before Lance Armstrong polluted it.