Lance Armstrong: hero or cheater?

beancounter

beancounter

The Fire That Burns Within
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I don't think of athletes as heroes (unless, of course, they happen to do something selfless and worth being considered heroic).

It appears that doping has been so widespread in biking that they should either just allow it or suspend competition until such a time as testing technology gets in front of doping technology. I don't think Armstrong should be prosecuted, because if there were to be justice, they would need to launch similar wideranging and years' long investigations against everyone else. That would be cost prohibitive and just not worth it.
 
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He may be a cheater, but I don't lose all respect for those that use steroids.

Not because "it's a part of the game", but because it doesn't diminish the incredible efforts that they still put in each and every day.
 
I don't know if this is true, but don't steroids increase the risk of certain cancers.

His use of steriods could have been the trigger to his developing cancer...

He "beat cancer" as the saying goes, but it's kind of like saying, "well I may have opened Pandora's box, but at least I was able to close it afterward".
 
Envy said:
He may be a cheater, but I don't lose all respect for those that use steroids.

Not because "it's a part of the game", but because it doesn't diminish the incredible efforts that they still put in each and every day.
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But it does kind of urinate on those people who didn't use drugs, who also made an incredible effort every day.
 
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Not a hero, but definitely an amazing athlete whether he doped or not. This was a problem more widespread than him, as has been pointed out, though. I think it's unfair to strip him of his titles unless they want to also strip pretty much every other racer over the past 20 years of their titles as well. If the intent is to clean up the sport, then they should concentrate on what's happening now. If they want to waste effort persecuting someone, they should make it someone that is actually causing some damage to the world, not someone whose main focus is on bike racing and raising money for cancer research.

In regards to the drug war, whether you believe it's worth fighting or not, there are much, much, much bigger and more dangerous fish to fry than Lance.
 
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I don't think he should be prosecuted. But then I don't think drug use should be a crime. (No, I don't use.)

I'm still trying to figure out why Nike dropped him like a hot potato but think that piece of **** Vick is a good representative for their company.
 
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I've never been a fan of Lance Armstrong, but if they are going to go after him, they should go after all the others in the sport who doped, and I am sure there are many. It's a shame that because there is so much money/pressure in sports athletes feel the need to break the rules to get an edge and owners seem to condone it or turn a blind eye (remember the McGwire/Sosa home run race?). I love following sports, but I do get tired of all the cheating. They need to go back to the days when athletes were normal-size big instead of these gargantuan, unnaturally sized people playing sports. It's amazing to watch footage of a football game from the 70s and compare it to now. The size of the players is incredible compared with what we thought were big athletes back then.

Oh, and don't EVEN get me started on Michael Vick.:mad:
 
Blobbenstein said:
But it does kind of urinate on those people who didn't use drugs, who also made an incredible effort every day.
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That's why I said "not all".

And a person with good genetics and no doping would probably be equal or better than a person with bad genetics and doping.

beancounter said:
This is the way I look at it. If doping is against the rules, then what type of person would break the rules. What does that say about his character?...

Why would anyone respect someone who would cheat to get ahead?
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That depends.

I think I would respect someone more if it had a inherent risk to the body than if it caused no harm at all.

That being said, in some sports you have to break the rules in some way just to have a chance of winning.
 
beancounter said:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bennett-l-gershman/why-hasnt-lance-armstrong_b_2007437.html

So, he was recently stripped of his titles and many companies are distancing themselves from him.

Do you see anything wrong with doping?
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Yes. It's against the rules of the sport and apparently illegal.



Does his charity "compensate" for his cheating.
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To a degree, but not completely. I think Al Capone gave to charity, too.


Should he be prosecuted?
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Apparently so. But he apparently won't be. The main reason he should have been prosecuted is that he was the head of a major doping conspiracy, according to the article you cited.

Do you still think he's a hero?
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I never thought that. I never gave him much thought either way.
 
Envy said:
He may be a cheater, but I don't lose all respect for those that use steroids.

Not because "it's a part of the game", but because it doesn't diminish the incredible efforts that they still put in each and every day.
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Thats funny...because I do.
Taking performance enhancing drugs is cheating.

Oh and sports'stars' are not heroes.
 
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Alice-Bee said:
Thats funny...because I do.
Taking performance enhancing drugs is cheating.

Oh and sports'stars' are not heroes.
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