It wasn’t so long ago that Lance Armstrong was one of the most respected sportsmen in history. A winner of the gruelling Tour de France on no fewer than seven consecutive occasions, following a heroic recovery from testicular cancer in 1996 – and more recently as a charity ambassador – Armstrong was nothing short of a hero for any sports fan and an inspiration for those living with illness.
Fast forward to the present day and the world’s perception of Armstrong has been flipped upside down. Stripped of his Tour de France titles and his sponsorship deal with Nike, Armstrong has stepped down as chairman of his own cancer charity, Livestrong.
With his reputation in tatters and his supporters disillusioned, Armstrong has become another casualty to doping. His alleged error was no mistake. Reports suggest that it was thoroughly planned out, with his whole team playing a major part in deceiving the authorities by enabling Armstrong to skip drugs tests throughout his career.
Five of his former team mates (Levi Leipheimer, George Hincap, Tom Danielson, Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie) who were also benefitting from doping, have been banned by the U.S. Anti Doping Agency (USADA) for six months, while another of his former team mates, Matt White, has been sacked as national coach by Cycling Australia. Yet in spite of the evidence stacked up against him, Armstrong maintains his innocence.
His lawyer, Tim Herman has requested that Armstrong’s former team mates should be given a lie detector test to prove their evidence is false. Nevertheless, USADA has taken on board the accounts given by them, as well as friends and employees, and now claims that the evidence on the Armstrong case is stronger than any other which it has investigated before. USADA’s report, published last week, suggests that Armstrong’s entire career was boosted by doping, thanks to the doctors and smugglers who assisted him.
It also claims that he encouraged his team mates to join in with doping, and that his team, U.S. Postal Service/Discovery, had inside information of when doping tests would take place so that Armstrong could avoid being caught. Those who came forward to testify against Armstrong include Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title for doping. USADA believe that Landis and the other athletes who have come forward on this case have been “courageous’” and that this has given them “a chance to leave a legacy far greater for the good of the sport than anything they ever did on a bike”.
But what of Armstrong’s legacy? His continual denial of doping has left the former icon looking foolish (although his stepping down from Livestrong could be seen as a step closer to admitting his role in the affair). Arguably the only thing he has achieved in the case is the tarnishing of the sport’s reputation as a whole.
Cycling has been enjoying a period of real success recently and this year has been unprecedented for British triumph on two wheels with Bradley Wiggins becoming the first ever British winner of the Tour de France in July and Team GB achieving a remarkable 12 medals at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
However the recent cycling craze has been overshadowed by the Armstrong case, with Team Sky criticised for hiring Armstrong’s former doctor Geert Leinders. On top of this French rider Steve Houanard also tested positive for doping in the last month. The case appears to be leading to a downfall in cycling’s fortunes and has proven beyond doubt that when it comes to doping in sport there are no winners.