Why did Lance Armstrong give up?
By David Blood
When a man is not guilty he will normally go to his death pleading his innocence; by the same token, as many guilty men go to the gallows still pleading innocence, so without scientific forensic evidence to prove that innocence, one might never know the truth.
In the case of modern drug use in sport, there is very little that escapes the forensic evidence, to the degree that athletes are banned or disqualified for using the most innocuous substances, that could never have provided any advantage over the distances or durations of their feat.
Take a cycle race like the Tour de France or “Tour de Dope” as it has become known in recent years – it is run over 21 days and 3 497 kilometres. I would love to know what undetectable drug could give a cyclist an added advantage over that distance for that many days without killing him or leaving any residue in his body!
That is why they get random tests daily, which means it would take one hell of a conspiracy to ensure that you didn’t get caught.
Lance Armstrong is an international hero as he overcame cancer to go on and win the TDF, not once but seven times, from 2000.
October 2, 1996, then aged 25, Armstrong was diagnosed as having developed stage three testicular cancer. The cancer spread to his lungs, abdomen and brain. On that first visit to a urologist in Austin, Texas, for his cancer symptoms he was coughing up blood and had a large, painful testicular tumour. Immediate surgery and chemotherapy were required to save his life. Armstrong had an orchiectomy to remove his diseased testicle. After his surgery, his doctor stated that he had less than a 40% survival chance.
For more than seven years he has fought to clear his name, not based on whether or not he used drugs but rather questioning the validity of the testing; even Bill Clinton pleaded not guilty to sexual misconduct after getting oral sex from a White House intern, he never denied it, just that it wasn’t sexual intercourse!
So that makes me ask: why would a man who cheated death and was given a second chance, risk it all by using a performance-enhancing substance – I know all about cheating death, it gives you a different perspective on life and when you have cheated death you don’t cheat yourself!
Now we hear that the US Anti-Doping Agency - the self styled universal doping police — have stripped Armstrong of his seven TDF titles – really! As far as I know, only the UCI, the world cycling body, can strip Armstrong of anything to do with international cycling!
Taking a sniff of a nasal spray, then running 80km from Pietermaritzburg to Durban with some minute trace of it showing up in your urine doesn’t make you a cheat; smoking some Durban Poison behind the sightscreen certainly doesn’t enhance your cricketing skills, if anything it would impede them, mon!
If these are the criteria, then they should ban all sportsmen and women from drinking coffee, as a good cup of filter coffee can give my adrenalin levels a real boost and get the heart pumping custard for 20 minutes or so – does that make me a drug user? They tell me that if you down a glass of Jet Fuel and wait about two hours, you will fly faster than Usain Bolt when you let one go!
I think the sporting world has gone nuts, and I don’t blame Armstrong for throwing in the towel against such an unprecedented witchhunt; only he knows the truth, not his detractors.