Lance Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs during his Tour de France wins. The accusations that he had used PEDs has shadowed him for years and after he was not only banned for cycling, Armstrong was also barred from competing in his new hobby, marathons. You see, in cycling PED use is widely spread and common that in order to find the actual winner of the Tour de France, you would have to look at 9th place, not exactly an honest and clean sport.
Cycling is no different than football, baseball or boxing. Armstrong is no different then the guys before him who got caught. He just went to far greater lengths to cover his tracks and for a good while, he did a very good job at it.
However in the end, Armstrong finally came clean. Yes, he cheated, yes, he used PEDs to compete at the highest levels of competition and it paid dividends for him- From sponsorships to notoriety with the biggest athletic company Nike. Armstrong’s lying and cheating gained him far more fame and success than if he had just been an above average cyclist who overcame testicular cancer that may have placed in the top 20, had he not used PEDs.
This final admission of guilt may or may not ruin him, only time will tell.
What the Armstrong admission does after so many years of lying is serves as a reminder that no matter how much an athlete claims he or she is clean, especially in sports such as cycling or boxing, there will always be the truth waiting to come out.
This especially rings true with boxing. In the past few years, boxing has been covered in a cloud of PED suspicion, including some of boxing’s current top fighters. Armstrong never tested positive, at least not on any tests that were released, yet he was still banned due to the fact that others were adamant and willing to go to great lengths to corroborate stories of teammates and others to prove that Armstrong cheated.
All it takes is one disgruntled or jaded friend or confidant to have a fall out and then the ex-friend goes to any number of media outlets and gets paid to talk about what they know about a certain fighter to start a firestorm of accusations and then…. so and so fighter will be sitting with Oprah or whomever admitting to PEDs.
So while it may be Lance Armstrong and his admission to PEDs after years of claiming he was clean as the most current athlete to admit guilt, tomorrow or 5 years from now, it may be your favorite current fighter.
The sports world has once again been put on reminder- No matter how long it was or who you are, if your cheating and someone knows about it, chances are you may be asking for some press you probably do not want. Hopefully Oprah will be around when it does.