Lance Armstrong — downfall of a sporting icon
Armstrong’s place in history moves from cycling hero to dope cheat
Published: October 22,
File picture dated 24 July 2009 of Astana rider Lance Armstrong of the US reacts on the start podium before the 19th stage of the Tour de France cycling race between Bourgeois -hill and Aube as in France.
Image Credit: EPA
GENEVA: Once a symbol of perseverance in the face of the most incredible odds, Lance Armstrong now seems destined to go down in history as one of the most brazen dope cheats that sport has ever seen.
After sensationally conceding defeat in his fight to contest the charges against him in August, the Texan’s world caved in further on Monday when the International Cycling Union (UCI) erased him from the sport’s history.
The US Anti-Doping Agency had already published a damning report that laid bare his guilt.
Armstrong, they claimed, was at the heart of “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen”.
“He was not just a part of the doping culture on his team,” said the USADA. “He enforced and re-enforced it.”
UCI president Pat McQuaid told reporters he was “sickened” by the revelations, adding: “Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling.”
The decision to cast aside one of cycling’s most successful exponents leaves Armstrong’s sporting legacy in tatters but for all his detractors, there have been just as many admirers.
For his supporters, the doping allegations pale into comparison beside his battle with life-threatening cancer and the work of his charitable foundation, which he founded to help others living with the disease.
Doctors had given Armstrong a less than 50 per cent chance of survival when he was diagnosed in 1996 with testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain.
He persevered through surgery and chemotherapy and returned to cycling but was little known in his homeland when he won his first Tour de France title in 1999.
His years of dominance in the sport’s greatest race raised cycling’s profile in the United States to new heights and gave him a platform to promote cancer awareness and research.
The Lance Armstrong Foundation has raised almost $500 million (Dh1.84 billion) since it was created in 1997.
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