When "Shoeless Joe" Jackson was
leaving court after being charged in the 1919, Black Sox scandal, a young
fan called out, "Say it ain't so,
Joe," When,
in June 2012, the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) charged Lance Armstrong with
having used illicit performance enhancing drugs in past races, many of us
initially questioned the charges and asked ""Say it ain't so, Lance."
Those who doubted USADA
charges that were initially based on doping allegations by some fellow
cyclists, became to believe that the charges might be true when
Nike cancelled it's contract with Lance. Nike has always stood by other scandal-shrouded sports start such as Tiger Woods,
Brett
Rothenberger, and Michael Vic. So
when Nike believes the charges, that was all the proof that most people
needed. For all of his other diehard fans that still believed in his
innocence, they saw his televised confession to the Reverend Winfrey which
demonstrated that Lance not only had lied for years, but also met the
psychiatric definition of sociopath and harmed many people with his
litigation again claims of doping.
Lance was once a transcendent
sports hero. His first major success was winning the US.amateur cycling
championship in 1991. By 1993, Lance finished the year number one in
the world, winning ten one-day events and stage races. He became one
of the youngest riders to win the world road race championship, and took his
first stage win at the 1993 Tour de France-
In 1996, Lance was diagnosed with testicular cancer, that metastasized to his
brain and lungs. He underwent brain and testicular surgery and
extensive chemotherapy and was initially given little chance to survive.
Lance, however, beat all the odds and went on to have a complete recovery
and then won the grueling Tour de France a record-breaking seven consecutive
years, from 1999 to 2005.and is the is the only individual to win seven
times, although he was stripped of the wins after the USADA charges. Lance also established the
Livestrong
Foundation that provides free cancer care to those who can't
afford treatment and has served 2.5 million cancer patients and saved
thousands of lives.
The Tour de France is the world's most
prestigious bicycle race over more than 2,200 mile (3,500 km). It is held in
France and visits a bordering country every year, but always ends up in
Paris. It usually lasts 23 days. Cyclists from all over the world take part.
The number of riders varies annually. The Tour de France was first
organized in 1903 and was inspired by the success of France's first
national bicycle race in 1891 which was a 750 mile (1200 km.) event
going from Paris to Brest on the Atlantic Ocean and returning to Paris.
However, the sport and the race has become the most corrupt sport and event
in history and it estimated that more than 80% of the riders were on
EPO (a hormone that increases red blood cell production) and other banned
substances. So when Lance was stripped of his titles, the titles
couldn't go to the second place winners since all of those cyclists had also
been disqualified for doing
During the the first Paris-Brest-Paris
race, a baker, on seeing the cyclists pass his window, on was so
inspired by what he saw, that he created a pastry called the
"Paris-Brest" shaped like a bicycle wheel to commemorate the event. This
bicycle wheel dessert seems more than appropriate for Lance's Birthday .which
is still worth celebrating for his remarkable charity work which will suffer
because of his disgrace. Enjoy it while watching him in a poignant cameo in Dodgeball (2004).
An interesting historical fact. The word
"testify" comes from the word "testes" since the early Romans used to take
an oath with their hand over their testes and not their heart. So the
penalty for perjury was castration. Lance gave sworn
testimony, under oath, denying he had ever doped several years ago in Texas,
but the statute of limitations for perjury has run out. But the Karma
appears to be that he was partially castrated for the testicular cancer
before his testimony in anticipation of his subsequent lies. So in some
ways, Roman justice was preserved.
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