"They" say cheater

Posted: Monday, August 27, 2012 by Travis Cody in
9

In July, I wrote that "they" were after Lance Armstrong yet again.

I didn't know then, and I don't know now, whether the accusation of cheating is true or not.  Neither do you.  But the United States Anti-Doping Agency, while giving no evidence of a positive drug test in over 500 controls throughout Mr Armstrong's cycling career, now says he did.  And USADA apparently gets the last word.

Last week, Mr Armstrong said he was done fighting USADA because the process is inherently unfair.  So USADA now wants to strip Mr Armstrong of his Tour de France legacy.  Washington Post columnist Tracee Hamilton has summed up my feelings in an editorial.

In my opinion, USADA still has not proven that Lance Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs or illegal techniques to gain his success.  It would appear that they don't have to show a positive drug test or how it was obtained, if they have one, until or unless Mr Armstrong accepts binding arbitration.  Evidently, the fact that in all his professional cycling in the Tour de France and in the Olympics, the fact that he never tested positive for illegal substances is secondary to what undeclared people with unknown motivations have said under allegedly sworn testimony.

Did I just call those witnesses liars?  I guess I did.  But I'm a person with an opinion here.  USADA doesn't answer to me and neither does Lance Armstrong.  But since it matters to me, this is my place to put my opinion on record.

Yeah, I'm going to go on record as doubting USADA.  Because, as Ms Hamilton points out in her column, why should the testimony of a person trump the science of testing?  How is that right?  How is that just?

Call me naive.  But if this case matters to you and you have an opinion, your opinion is going to be based on what you think.  You don't know.  I don't know.  Maybe Mr Armstrong did cheat and USADA is full of heroes for never giving up and finally punishing him for it.  Or maybe Mr Armstrong didn't cheat and USADA is full of vindictive people who have decided to wield a power without challenge for their own agenda.

I don't know.  Neither do you.

Did Lance Armstrong cheat better than anyone who ever tried to gain an unfair advantage over the competition and just never get caught during his career despite over 500 controls before, during, and after races?

Did Lance Armstrong's body chemistry become altered during intensive radiation and chemotherapy treatments to save his life from cancer, allowing him to train and perform better than anyone else, legally?

Did Lance Armstrong legally train harder than anyone else?

Is Lance Armstrong just one of those special athletes?

USADA says cheat.  Lance Armstrong says no cheat.

"They" say.  "He" says.

No positive drug test.

Your opinion.  My opinion.

9 comments:

  1. Barb says:

    "People lie. Blood and urine usually don’t. And if they do, they don’t lie 500 times."
    -Tracee Hamilton


    Those 3 sentences sum it all up quite nicely, don't they?

    Now I am not a fan of the sport so I have nothing whatsoever vested in the outcome however I do find it incredulous to think that Lance Armstrong somehow figured out a way to beat the drug testing all throughout his career. D'oh.

    And if Lance Armstrong's character is anything like I think it likely is, he doesn't give a flip what "they" think. He knows what he did and how he did it, and that is probably all that truly matters to him.

    It would be all that mattered to me, too. Why waste your time in a law suit to prove something that ultimately can not be proved. People will still believe what they will.

  1. He won and "they" cannot change that. Lance is going on to fight a bigger fight and "They" cant change that either. That's my opinion. Livestrong!
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  1. Cherie says:

    I don't have any particularly wonderful feeling about cycling or Lance Armstrong, but a couple of years ago, I came to the conclusion that the USADA was going for "death by a thousand cuts." They were going to keep going after him until they found something or he quit.

    The last I heard is that they have to release the report, which is supposed to include the physical evidence to "prove" that he cheated, to the union or something. After that it would be released to the public.

    We'll see, but at that point, I'm not how sure I will be about the credibility of the "facts."

  1. Jean(ie) says:

    What I do know is what counts. Lance knows he's a winner and won fairly. It's not going to change my opinion.

    In my world it's innocent until proven guilty.

    Big hugs from the North side.

  1. As it happens I agree with you. Even if Lance were doping, so was everyone else around him in that era. That means he was the best at what he did against the best in the field which still makes him the best. Stripping him of his records after forcing him to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars not to mention the stress and time that took away from the great good he was doing.

  1. Ivanhoe says:

    Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? I sure hope he did not. I still believe in him :)

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  1. Dang.. I wish I knew. It just is so frustrating.

    What will be interesting is if the USPS and his other sponsors ask for the millions they 'paid' him over the years.

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