I have virtually NO sympathy for Lance Armstrong, nor any desire top give him a second chance.
This man lied repeatedly to his fans, and to the cycling officials who confronted him, and even went so far as to trash the reputation and try to destroy the careers of fellow cyclists who dared to tell the truth about him.
I have no compassion left for the man.
You know when I was young I had a brief career as a powerlifter.
I had started lifting weights as a freshman in high school and took to it immediately. By the end of that first semester I had doubled the amount of weight I could lift and was hooked. I became a gym rat and have trained with any number of powerlifters and bodybuilders up here.
I enjoyed it and when I found out there were actual competitions held that awarded trophies and prize money, I was all in.
My first couple of times out were very successful and I even set a new record or two for my weight class, which was 165 in those days. In fact I was actually only competing against myself, trying to improve my best lift and gain more muscle just to see how strong and big I could get.
But then at around 24 years old things began to change.
There was another competitive powerlifter in the gym that my buddy and I frequented that was also in my weight class. When he first started lifting there he was not nearly as strong as I was and I paid little attention to him. But after awhile, and not a very long while, he began to make significant gains.
I remember that in one month his bench press had improved forty pounds. At our level of competition that was unheard of. A beginner might see similar gains, but not somebody who had been lifting for a number of years.
I had already had some experience with bodybuilders using steroids and knew that they were becoming more an more prevalent. One day in the locker room I overheard this guy talking to another member and going on and on about the human growth hormones he was on and the other chemical help his doctor was helping him with.
I had worked all year to improve my lift by fifteen pounds and this guy was poised to make all of that effort meaningless. That really pissed me off.
My friend said that if I really wanted to stay competitive I would have to use the same substances this guy, and now others, were using.
But I couldn't. To me taking a substance to enhance my abilities was cheating, period! In my mind there was no way to win if I could not win without taking shortcuts, and it was certainly not worth risking my health for the sake of a tin trophy and a fistful of cash.
So I just walked away. I continue to lift to this very day, but I have never even contemplated competing again.
Now I know that Lance Armstrong made significantly more money through HIS sport than I could ever have hoped to make through mine, but at the end of the day look who he has to see staring back at him from the mirror.
I don't have a shelf full of trophies (Well I do have a few.) but in exchange I get to look in the mirror and like the guy staring back at me, and I get to talk to kids about ethical and moral behavior without feeling like a hypocritical douchebag.
The choice to take the easy path to victory, or to put winning above everything else, is an indication of your character. If you are the type who cares little for how you win, than in my mind you simply do not deserve to win. And you certainly do not deserve to be admired by impressionable young people for your accomplishments.
In a world where it seems heroes are few and far between, this is yet another example of somebody who accepted glory and accolades that he KNEW he simply did not deserve. Personally I think he should be forced to return the money paid to him by his sponsors, hand back his prize money, and dedicate the rest of his life to lecturing young people on WHY cheaters never win, and winners never cheat.
Update: Full interview
here.
