Just a heads-up before we begin. What you are about to read probably isn’t
going to sound a whole lot like me, at least not the me you’re used to. I try very hard to keep a positive attitude
when I write, and focus on the good in things.
I don’t want to give in to the easy temptation of using the blog to
vent, or conduct personal attacks of any sort.
I try not to write angry.
This post violates all of these self-imposed
restrictions.
In this case, I’m just going to let it all hang out. After all, my blog is all about documenting
where I am in life, and right now I’m angry.
Hurt and angry. So I’m just going
to write this and then let it go, and hopefully release at least some of my anger
and disappointment along with it.
To some, it might sound a little like a break-up letter, at
least as close to one as a forty-four-year-old man who’s been happily married
for twenty-three years is capable of producing.
If you’re here looking for entertainment, I suppose you might get
something out of that idea…
Dear Lance-
Champion. It’s such
an interesting word, isn’t it?
To some people, a champion is someone who wins a lot,
someone who does whatever it takes to beat everyone else and claim the prize. To those people, you are probably considered a
champion and will always be one.
Most people agree on the qualities embodied by a
champion: determination, commitment to
excellence, strength, courage, focus, passion.
Again, by that definition no one could deny that you are a champion
among champions.
But, to people like me, a champion requires one more thing,
one more essential ingredient to truly elevate a person to that level, and
allow the rare human being to transcend sport and serve as an example to all people
of what is finest in us. That ingredient
is honor.
Without honor, all of those other qualities are flawed, and
become potential vices. Ask Pete Rose,
or Barry Bonds, or Tiger Woods. With
honor, you can be Muhammad Ali, or Jackie Robinson, or Roger Federer. Closer to home, I’ve been privileged to
watch some special athletes grow into champions, and teach me about honor, even
if they’ve eluded wider acclaim: Steve
Nash, Kurt Warner, Aeneas Williams, and in his own special way of course, Pat Tillman.
But that’s not you, is it?
I know that about you now. I know
because you gave up the fight to clear your name just before the trial which
would have made public the evidence against you. You made your excuses, and your many defenders
have quickly stepped in to rationalize your decision in every imaginable way to
protect you and your record, but I know the truth. I know that a true champion would die before
allowing false accusations to stand, and to have a legacy of honest achievement
stripped away by baseless charges. A
champion who demonstrated almost superhuman tenacity on the race course, who
overcame all obstacles, and who suffered and endured thousands of miles and
years on the thin seat of a bicycle in wind, and rain, and freezing cold, and
withering heat to win those seven cups, would not see them all taken back, and
lower his head to accept the shame of being branded a cheater. Not without fighting to the last ounce of his
being. Unless he lacked honor.
It’s the flaw that proves the fall.
I’ve heard you don’t want to spend all your money on
fighting the charges anymore. That might be understandable. We all know legal costs are astonishingly
exorbitant, especially in celebrity cases.
But you were one of the great sports champions of all time. You had the public firmly on your side. Even without a penny, what media outlet in
this country would not give you an opportunity to advocate your position, and
refute the allegations against you?
They’d do it because people would watch.
So please, don’t make this about the money.
And don’t try to tell me you’re tired of the whole thing and
just want it to be over. Really? More tired than after three straight days of
climbs into the Pyrenees or the Alps ? Something tells me you’ve experienced
exhaustion before. Yet somehow, you kept
going then. Somehow you found a way to
turn sheer exhaustion into more energy.
What’s so different now? Where is
the will to win now? Where is the
determination that is so fierce it’s frightening for others to see?
I thought you had everything it took to be a champion. Now, thanks to you, I have to question every
athlete I see. Because if you were
capable of cheating, who isn’t? Whose
integrity is beyond question? No one’s,
not even those people I gave as examples of the best kind of champions. Not for me.
I will always have to doubt the integrity of all athletes, of all sports
accomplishments, because of you. Maybe
you have done me a favor, maybe there is no such thing as a clean athlete
anymore. Maybe there hasn’t been for a
long, long time. But even if that was
the case, it didn’t make it okay for you to cheat, or to win by cheating, or to
lay claim to a legacy as a result of cheating.
And let’s get this part clear right now: anything you took into your body that was
designed for the purpose of enhancing your athletic performance which was not
available to all competitors equally and sanctioned by the rules of the sport was
cheating. I don’t care if a particular
substance was being tested for or not.
Your careful denials and side-stepping of direct answers bespeaks your
awareness of this fact. And, sorry to
sound like a broken record, but it bespeaks your broken sense of integrity.
Look, I’m not new to this sport. I’m familiar with the list of scandals and
cheating that has plagued professional bicycling. I know corruption has always been associated
with the sport, and I’m sure it continues to be rotten with it. It’s controlled by the Europeans, after all,
what else would you expect? But professional
bicycling is the sport you chose, and if you had honor, you would bring it with
you wherever you went, whatever the circumstances. Honor isn’t an overcoat, it’s not something
you take off when it gets too warm, and then pick up later when you want to wear
it again.
I guess that’s it. My
anger is spent. I’m still royally
pissed, but the anger is spent.
And in spite of everything, Lance, I wish you good health,
and a long, happy life, I truly do. I
can do that because you are no longer a champion to me, but just a person, and
I don’t wish ill on any person.
I hope you’re okay with that.
I also hope you can continue to work hard on the foundation
and the good and necessary work it does with conquering cancer. From what I know, LIVESTRONG is a great
organization, and you deserve credit for initiating it and for bringing so much
deserved attention to it.
There. I think I’m
done. I’m going to go out to the shed
now, and see if I can find my old Greg LeMond gloves. They had brown leather palms, and this kind
of open, macramé-type stitching on the back side of the hand. They were the first pair of bicycling gloves
I ever bought, when I first began to ride further than my own
neighborhood. See, I’ve been a fan of
bicycling long before you came along, Lance, and I remain one now. It’s a phenomenal sport, one that tests its
competitors in ways mentally, physically, and spiritually, that few, including
me, can fully appreciate. I will always
love this sport.
I’m just waiting for a real champion to come along.
Do you really feel that by bowing out of yet another lawsuit he is quitting? I have to say I wasn't a big Armstrong fan until this came along. I feel quite the opposite. I'm glad someone finally said 'Enough is enough!'.
ReplyDeleteHow do you 'prove' innocence? Simply, you can't. They have failed to prove his guilt thus far and he would have spent millions of dollars and another year or more of his Life saying the same story. He has a fantastic charity which can make such better use his millions and his leadership than the draining law system which already has him pegged guilty until proven innocent. Yes, I would have liked to see him fight with the last drop of blood, sweat and tears that he has, but why? Why do I need that from him? Why would that make me feel better knowing that just the fight could ruin his Life. As a cancer survivor I think he has a different perspective on how he spends his time and energy than you or I have, and I respect that fully.
I don't know if he's guilty or innocent. But in the 100's of blood and urine tests they have completed there's been nothing conclusive. I'll leave that judgement between God and his conscience. My gut says innocent. I don't let a few bad apples cast suspicion on everyone. And I too would say, "Enough is enough!"
Time has revealed the truth... And your gut was right!!!
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