Armstrong's Fall from Grace

Lance Armstrong is an inspiration. As a survivor of testicular cancer, Armstrong returned to his level of athletic achievement and then surpassed it in a feat that seemed impossible. He won seven straight Tour de France championships from 1999-2005. In a sport that no one cared about, Armstrong willed Americans to pay attention to his success and be inspired by his struggle. He then turned that fame and success into a foundation that has done incredible amounts of good in terms of spread of information and fundraising for cancer research.

All of this you knew already. If you were cognizant of sports, pop culture, or that annoying person with a rubber LiveStrong bracelet, Armstrong was and still is a commercial behemoth. Last week, the US Anti Doping Association suggested that they will revoke all of Armstrong's victories and erase his name from the record book after he decided to stop fighting allegations and investigations of his alleged doping and/or use of Performance Enhancing Drugs.

So, we are left in the lurch without a satisfactory answer... He never tested positive, but there were supposedly 10 former teammates who were ready to testify under oath that Armstrong did dope during his winning stretch. Reports have also emerged that Armstrong might have been tipped off before tests, allowing him to perform 'alterations' to compensate for doping. Another clear fact is that doping is anything but uncommon. Just a cursory list of riders who either tested positive or were accused of doping is enough to make you question whether this sport is one that can be competitive without such banned practices. Watching those riders push through the Pyrenees shows me that you'd have to be insane to even try.

Lance Armstrong acted as many symbols during his seven year reign. First as a cancer survivor, but as the winning continued, more causes seemed to attach themselves to him (whether he wanted them to or not). Remember, much of this was post 9/11 during the War on Terror, where a good portion of the nation wanted nothing else but to stick their nose up at any foreign nation. Especially France. Remember Freedom Fries? Lance was going into their country and beating them at their sport. While not saying that Armstrong himself felt this way, his sheer existence fed into the unhealthy jingoistic fervor that originated with our own Bush Administration.

All during Lance's run, French newspapers (especially Le Monde) were desperately trying to find proof of cheating, something to discredit Armstrong. And through this, Lance was defiant. He never tested positive, and he was tested hundreds of times. His defiance only has one parallel in my mind - track star Marion Jones, who held as many press conferences as she could gloating that she'd never tested positive for PEDs... until she did test positive. After such a self-righteous stance of denial, the fall from grace for each has to be even more severe.

Lance will be fine. The LiveStrong Foundation has received a record amount of donations in the wake of this news, and Armstrong will be able to hold onto the fact that he never tested positive. That's something Marion Jones can't say anymore. But, it's tough to imagine that his 'golden boy' reputation will ever recover. Did he cheat? I read a book a few years ago called From Lance to Landis that chronicled a sprawling system of doping from Armstrong's time to later American Tour de France winner Floyd Landis (who has also had his title stripped). Everything in it is circumstantial, but I found it convincing.

I just don't know how to feel about this. It's tough, because I like Lance and I think his story is one that we should aspire to. But he won't be remembered the same way... and he shouldn't be. Something about Idols and their clay feet. Oh, and no one cares about cycling again.