Most sports fans may have known the name of Lance Armstrong from some of his achievements as a cyclist. Possibly, in 1999 when he won the Tour de France for the first time in what would be the beginning of a streak that was as brilliant as it was later painful for the history of the sport.
Those less experienced in issues related to cycling have surely heard about the American as a result of the doping scandal that he starred in. But, regardless of the past, it is now inextricably linked to the use of illegal substances to enhance performance.
The story of a hero who went non-stop to occupy the role of villain. Armstrong’s career in cycling began as a story of self-improvement. After a promising start, but without outstanding international achievements, at the age of 25 he was detected testicular cancer with brain and lung metastases.
He faced very tough times, as he was diagnosed with a 40% chance of survival. However, he recovered after going through all kinds of treatments to beat the disease. Two years later, he returned to running professionally, and from 1999 his career would take a unique leap.
He began a streak that would end in 2005 of seven consecutive victories in the Tour de France, becoming the top winner in the history of the competition. Transformed into an absolute legend and a symbol of sport in his country, after his last conquest in the most important competition in road cycling, he decided to retire with all the glory.
The Texan cyclist was always characterized by being very critical of any situation that could be linked to doping during his career. However, at the time he suffered accusations that linked him to the use of illegal substances. Especially when in 2001 he began working with the Italian physician Michele Ferrari, whose reputation was for doing any kind of experiments to improve an athlete’s performance.
In 2004 when Ferrari was accused of committing sports fraud, Armstrong cut off all kinds of relationships with him and publicly declared that he did so because he felt “zero tolerance for someone convicted of using or facilitating doping drugs” although he denied having used them or that the doctor I would have even offered them.
Despite this and other incriminating rumors and testimonies, nothing was proven and the life of the multi-champion remained stable, almost until the end of his career. Only in 2010, a new accusation left him in the eye of the storm, but in this case, the consequences would be devastating.
Floyd Landis, his former US Postal teammate, who had the 2006 Tour de France title removed for doping, stated that Armstrong used drugs to enhance his performance and forced his entire team to do so in order to keep up with him. This triggered an investigation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
In 2012, after years of investigation, the North American organization presented to the International Cycling Union (UCI) a report of more than a thousand pages, with testimonies from 11 former colleagues in which it was described “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful system of doping that sport has never seen ”.
From then on, the life of perhaps the most outstanding cyclist in history became hell. That same year, at the proposal of the USADA, the UCI sanctioned Armstrong with the removal of all his tournaments won since 1999 and preventing him from competing for life.
Despite not having been discovered in any control during his career, he was accused of having used prohibited substances and methods, such as testosterone, blood transfusions, corticosteroids, agents to hide other substances and, mainly, EPO. Erythropoietin or EPO, is a natural substance in the human body that increases hematocrits, and allows a greater circulation of oxygen through the muscles. This dramatically increases an athlete’s endurance and resilience.
The level of hematocrit can grow naturally through training techniques or through injections of artificial EPO, as the USADA considered, the American did. Since then Armstrong’s entire life has fallen apart.
From being an idol on a par with Michael Phelps or LeBron James, in his own words, he went on to lose everything. His fame and glory evaporated. His figure became that of a phony. He lost sponsorship contracts with companies such as Nike, Trek, Oakley or Giro, which abandoned him causing him to lose more than 70 million dollars.
In addition, the International Olympic Committee urged him to return the bronze medal achieved in Sydney 2000. Even his relationship with his ex-wife Betsy Andrew took a nosedive after she testified against him in the USADA case.
Far from being intimidated by the presence of her husband, at the hearing she accused him of being “the great fraud in the history of sport.” Despite the enormous evidence against him, for a time he denied all kinds of accusations and even raised the stakes, rebuking each of those who had testified in the case and who dared to question it publicly. Even in this critical situation, his posture was haughty and arrogant.
Finally, in January 2013, in an interview with the renowned American host Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong confessed everything. He acknowledged having used illegal procedures such as blood transfusion and the use of substances to improve his performance, such as EPO.
In addition, he affirmed that no cyclist of his generation could have won a Tour de France without doping, which unleashed a chaos in cycling, which suffered, because of all this, a huge loss of prestige. Several years later, in an ESPN documentary, he even admitted that he started taking drugs to improve his performance at the age of 21, and that he does not rule out the possibility that the cancer he suffered had had some kind of relationship with the consumption of drugs. mentioned substances.
Who was once one of the greatest idols in the world became the great example of deception and cheating. Athletes from the most diverse disciplines, including Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, referred to the Armstrong case as one of the most regrettable frauds in the history of sport.
On some occasion, the cyclist who has lost everything, maintained that he would have won everything he won, even without consuming anything. But the concrete thing is that his sayings can never be proven and the place that history will always bring him is that of the great villain of cycling.
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