USADA -bans Lance Armstrong for life, strips 7 Tour de France titles

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With stunning swiftness, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said Thursday night it will strip Lance Armstrong of his unprecedented seven Tour de France titles after he dropped his fight against drug charges that threatened his legacy as one of the greatest cyclists of all time.

Travis Tygart, USADA's chief executive, said Armstrong would also be hit with a lifetime ban on Friday. And under the World Anti-Doping Code, he would lose the bronze medal from the 2000 Olympics as well as any awards, event titles and cash earnings.

Armstrong, who retired last year, effectively dropped his fight by declining to enter USADA's arbitration process - his last option - because he said he was weary of fighting accusations that have dogged him for years. He has consistently pointed to the hundreds of drug tests he passed as proof of his innocence while piling up Tour titles from 1999 to 2005.

"There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, `Enough is enough.' For me, that time is now," Armstrong said. He called the USADA investigation an "unconstitutional witch hunt."

"I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999," he said. "The toll this has taken on my family and my work for our foundation and on me leads me to where I am today - finished with this nonsense."

USADA reacted quickly and treated Armstrong's decision as an admission of guilt, hanging the label of drug cheat on an athlete who was a hero to thousands for overcoming life-threatening testicular cancer and for his foundation's support for cancer research.

quite a bit more to the article -
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mo...e-armstrong-drops-fight-us-antidoping-agency/
 
I think he was shafted........ What happened to innocent till prove guilty........ even if he gave up fighting it, they weren't proving him guilty.
 
This is total BS, why is it so hard to believe the man won all those titles without doping, total witch hunt if you ask me....
 
L.A. Is still the man. I just want him to publicly say "the committee can suck my one nut".

I may go buy some livestrong stuff right now


-Keith
'11 WRX (32k mi) & '99 2.3CL (43k mi)
 
i gaurantee he was doping. cycling makes doping/PED use in MLB look like child's play... in comparisson if you consider MLB's drug use to be "a joint here and there" then cycling PED Usage is most likely in the realm of "an 8 ball of coke per day while main-lining heroine"...

i'm not going to pass judgement on the fact that he did or didn't use drugs, as the majority of the sport is using according to just about every "source" you can find...
if you look back at the tests they show with his 02 respiratory capabilities, they are absolutely off the charts, and my problem with him is that okay, he won 2, got cancer, then came back and won what? 5 more? he's been fighting the PED accusations for 8+ years now, if i were him, i would have retired years ago, instead of continuing to ram the winning down people's throats.

i sincerely appreciate what he did for cancer research, and think he brought a lot of the disease and treatment to the public light, but let's not forget that the man also got rich off the tours and endorsements, and if you look at "where the money goes" there is between 5-9% yearly towards "administration costs" which i gaurantee is being used by him for personal things. it's not a non profit organization if i'm not mistaken.

anyway, i digress. there are multiple eye witness accounts of him cheating, and he has postive failed tests from years back (as do others) so i think he just gave up because heknew he was screwed. a cheat is a cheat, if everybody is cheating, and you do too, and you get caught? you are still a cheat. i think he hides behind his organization anda ll the "good things" he's done expecting others to look past his cheating, and i for one don't like it.
 
Eyewitnesses are one thing but real proof (any failed tests, ever) would sway most people. Problem is the French tried for many years and could not catch him doing any wrong. They hate/hated him and tried unsuccessfully. During his winning run, he gave tests after every stage yet that still doesn't se to be enough


-Keith
'11 WRX (32k mi) & '99 2.3CL (43k mi)
 
agreed keith, but let's also not forget the recent allegations of tyler hamilton (former teammate) stating that armstrong failed a test in 2001, and the ICU took armstrong and the team to the lab director of the failed test, and told them to make the test disappear.

there's a LOT of behind the scenes stuff here, and i'm positive he cheated, and i'm also positive 90% of the sport is also cheating, so who's to say that he would or wouldn't have won w/o the others cheating too? you know? i'm just trying to be objective
 
Lance Armstrong Loses Numerous Sponsorship Endorsements

Commercial fallout from doping allegations against Lance Armstrong hit Wednesday, after Nike Inc., RadioShack Corp., and Anheuser-Busch distanced themselves from the former cycling champ.

Nike was particularly harsh, citing what it described as insurmountable evidence that Mr. Armstrong participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade. The clothing and footwear company said it would continue to support Mr. Armstrong's cancer charity, despite its break with the cyclist, as part of a move to protect its Livestrong brand. The Lance Armstrong Foundation has for years has had a partnership with Nike, allowing it to license the Livestrong brand for a collection of clothing, shoes and other merchandise.

Mr. Armstrong said Wednesday that he resigned as chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, known as Livestrong. Nike didn't require Mr. Armstrong to step down from the chairmanship, according to a spokeswoman for the foundation, who said the decision was made by Mr. Armstrong after consultation with his family. She said the former cyclist continues to deny the allegations that he used performance enhancing drugs.

A Nike spokeswoman said she wouldn't comment on whether Nike had asked Mr. Armstrong to step aside from his chairmanship after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency last week detailing his alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs. Nike's relationship with Mr. Armstrong began in 1996, and when previous allegations that Mr. Armstrong doped surfaced, Nike had consistently backed Mr. Armstrong following his denials.

In 2000, Nike portrayed Mr. Armstrong to the public as a clean athlete, when it began airing commercials in which Armstrong is shown taking a blood test in front of reporters and then addressing allegations that he doped. "What am I on? I'm on my bike, six hours a day, busting my ***," he said, in the spot.


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIl5RxhLZ5U


Oakley Inc., which has sponsored Mr. Armstrong for more than two decades, said Wednesday that it is "reviewing the extensive report from the USADA, as well as our relationship with Lance." It added that Oakley will await final decision-making by international cycling's governing body, the International Cycling Union, with a response to USADA's file.

 
I always admired him as an athlete and a person. His work ethic is obviously as strong as they come, but it would be unfortunate to know that he cheated.

I think this is all very disappointing. :sadbanana:
 
You can only fight for so long....if he still fought this would've gone on for years and years. This just makes cycling look like a doping sport, I wouldn't have taken his titles, the ban yes. To me he's still a great person regardless of the allegations. Im sure like mongoose said, many other cyclists are doping and havent been caught yet.
 
Just heard on the news today that they're going after his prize winnings(into the millions). Who would have guessed that was coming.

My view is the community went after him to give themselves a credit reputation for their own existence. I for one know he won those races, and just because a group of suits say he is no longer the winner doesn't mean he didn't win. With all the proof of the history of WWII , there are ppl that say the Holocaust never happen, I don't believe them either.
Now they're teaching our kids by way of no score games, as what's the point in trying if you can't win, I don't think the kids that won, or lost don't know it, just because the scores weren't posted. Rant over, I feel better, thx.
 
Lance Armstrong Has Admitted To Doping During Oprah Interview / Set To Air Thursday:

full story/video
http://espn.go.com/sports/endurance...ts-doping-interview-oprah-winfrey-report-says

The disgraced cyclist made the confession to Oprah Winfrey during an interview taped Monday, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the interview is to be broadcast Thursday on Winfrey's network.

The admission Monday came hours after an emotional apology by Armstrong to the Livestrong charity that he founded and took global on the strength of his celebrity as a cancer survivor who came back to win one of sport's most grueling events. A source told ABC News that Armstrong is also talking to cycling authorities about naming names of others involved in illegal doping in hopes of reducing his lifetime ban.
 
I'm wondering how he got away with it, and where does this leave the future of cycling, and all other sports? What can prevent this from happening again, and how can anyone assure that any sport is absolutely clean? :scratches:
 
he is still my guy (man-crush... nohomo)
The French (and others) did all they could to find him guilty when he was actually racing (immediate testing right off his bike). They tested for everything illegal at that time. He was never found guilty of breaking the rules. They wanted him guilty SO BAD! Never failed, not once. That's enough for me.

If they try to say he is guilty going back after they change the rules, that's like mailing out speeding tickets on a road to everyone after they lower the speed limit and say that with the new limit, you were speeding in the past. That's fcked.
 
k757 said:
he is still my guy (man-crush... nohomo)
The French (and others) did all they could to find him guilty when he was actually racing (immediate testing right off his bike). They tested for everything illegal at that time. He was never found guilty of breaking the rules. They wanted him guilty SO BAD! Never failed, not once. That's enough for me.

If they try to say he is guilty going back after they change the rules, that's like mailing out speeding tickets on a road to everyone after they lower the speed limit and say that with the new limit, you were speeding in the past. That's fcked.
Click to expand...



Yes, that is a good question-- how did Lance Armstrong hide or "mask" his doping activity? I did a quick google search to find out more about it. I would recommend you check out the following links and do more of your own research too:

http://news.discovery.com/adventure/extreme-sports/how-armstrong-avoided-drug-detection-121011.htm

http://bigthink.com/think-tank/lance-armstrongs-guide-to-passing-a-drug-test
http://bigthink.com/think-tank/lance-armstrongs-guide-to-passing-a-drug-test
 
KennyGS said:
I'm wondering how he got away with it, and where does this leave the future of cycling, and all other sports? What can prevent this from happening again, and how can anyone assure that any sport is absolutely clean? :scratches:
Click to expand...

The question about "the future of cycling" is a really good one. Strangely enough, what Lance Armstrong will do next will help determine the answer. Will he want to come back to cycling? Will he ever be allowed to do so? Only time will tell (and also how his case proceeds following his admittance to doping).

And regarding the "cleanliness" of sports today-- that is the billion gajillion dollar question. Task forces, organizations, agencies, they can all try to ban substance after substance, but there will always be something out there for athletes to use. Whatever gives them that extra push. I don't see sports being 100% clean ever again.
 
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