Liar Lance Armstrong

[adrianh]

I have no problem with people making money by doing what they are good at. There are many many absolutely brilliant sportmen and women. If they become rich doing what they love and people are willing to pay for it then its all good. I don't have an issue with Lance Amstrong either, he beat them at their own game because he played within the rules - they changed the rules and they burned him on the new rules.

Sportmen and women wont make big money if the public wasn't willing to buy into what they do and what thy represent. The public fuels the money that is constantly poured into sport, not the sportsmen. If people didn't watch rugby and talk about rugby then companies wouldn't sponsor them...its that simple.

[tec0]

Well if they changed the rules and he was burned because of the new rules then why the upset? I think this is just another case of the news making the news rather then reporting it.

I also don't have a problem with people earning millions but again I am that is not the truth because I do have a problem with it. I have a missive problem with the fact that 10 sports supper stars can pay off all the debt in South Africa and still have money to spare.

I cannot hold my tongue anymore.... It sucks!!!! How the hell can this be justified. How on earth can a single entity "like sport" have so much money that they can feed every single family in a 3rd world for the next 500 years and yet they would rather pay people so that they can impress teenagers?

There is something seriously messed up here....

[msmoorad]

from what i know, most athletes at pro level in many sports are using illegal drugs

the thing is, everyone else is using it & the human body can only go so far
if you, as a pro athlete are competing against others & youre not using drugs, then youve already lost

cos, no matter how hard you train, you wont be performing at their drug enhanced level.
in order to level the playing field, there has to be certainty th NO athlete is using to or all ought to be allowed to use it

also, promoters & sponsors dangle big carrots in the form of cash & other prizes for coming first or breaking the world record etc-this is where the greed comes in.

[Mike C]

Sportmen and women wont make big money if the public wasn't willing to buy into what they do and what thy represent.

@Adrianh - Couldn't agree more. It is us who make them our heroes and when we discover that they have feet of clay we are disgusted with them rather than with ourselves.

It has always fascinated me how, once a person has become famous (eg won big brother / survivor etc), people hang on their every word as though they are the most profound thinkers. It is as if they had become god-like overnight. A month or two before that they would not have given their "pronouncements" the time of day.

Fame is fickle, and we choose our heroes because of their faces, acting or sporting ability, their political position, or simply because the media has made them recognisable, rather than for the values they hold or the way they really behave and treat others behind the scenes.

[Phil Cooper]

The other thing to take into account is that the sportspeople have a very limited lifespan in the sport - around 10 - 15 years.

We office types have 40-odd years to build up our retirement funds.

[adrianh]

@ msmoorad - define the term "illigal drug" - the definition is problematic because hundreds of substances that are dcommonly available from supermarkets are considered to be "illigal drugs" in sport. I don't like the term drug in this case because most of the substances are consinered to be fairly harmless like caffiene

@mike c
>>It has always fascinated me how, once a person has become famous (eg won big brother / survivor etc), people hang on their every word as though they are the most profound thinkers.
Yeah, The reason is that 99% of the human race sees the suit and not the monkey.....

[tec0]

I wonder if water can be seen as substance abuse? or air intake can be seen as a performance enhancement? The reality is the body produces natural chemicals to make the activity more survivable.

[Citizen X]

This is not the biggest scandal we’ve seen! I was a fan of Lance Armstrong. What is gut-wrenching is that he had a severe cancer that spread to his brain and lungs and he survived this. It seems the drug use started after 1996 after his cancer survival. I’m by no means suggesting that what he did was right but just that we’ve had our own scandals in sports in SA. He doesn’t talk about his weakened condition due to the cancer at the time and the possibility for using these drugs as medically endorsed and prescribed items for his recovery. I’m no doctor, but I think that if you have such advanced cancer, then steroids are a legitimate recovery option...

[Mike C]

For me it is not so much that he used Performance Enhancing Substances as I suspect most top athletes have, at some stage in their training and career, done that.

What got me was the bald faced lies delivered oh so convincingly at his hearing, and the way he aggresively, and without shame, attacked those who were actually telling the truth.

[Newretailer]

I agree, Mike. He tried to ruin other people in his arrogant denials.

Apparently a sign was posted in a library in Australia next to Armstrong's books: These books will be moved from non-fiction to fiction shortly.

[Didditmiself]

I thought he had testicular cancer. I did not know it had spread to his brain and lungs.

[Citizen X]

I thought he had testicular cancer. I did not know it had spread to his brain and lungs.

Good morning Pete,

It actually started off as testicular cancer and then spread to both his lungs and brains! Imagine having cancer of the brain! I clearly recall Lance Armstrong been used as an example to follow when facing a challenge. I recall having experienced a trip or two to hell and back and among other things I was reassured by being told that basically ,' look at what this man Lance armstrong went through and yet prevailed, he didn't give up , have a defeatest attitude or go on a pity party.' I took it like that and reconciled myself to the belief, that what I was really going through was nothing compared to what Lance was going through at that time. This did motivate me!
It's tragic that he cheated and lied about it for so long, we've had other sports scandals such as Hanse etc. In SA we have a corruption scandal almost daily, so I think that there is a future for Lance, he can actually motivate youngsters not to do steroids etc.

[adrianh]

If only Zoomer and Uncle Bob could get incuarable cancer that would kill them in 6 months.

I think that somebody should do a thesis as part of a new branch of religious / statistical research - "Why total dumba$$e$ who deserve to get terrible incurable diseases don't..."

They could call it; "Karma is K@k"

[Citizen X]

If only Zoomer and Uncle Bob could get incuarable cancer that would kill them in 6 months.

I think that somebody should do a thesis as part of a new branch of religious / statistical research - "Why total dumba$$e$ who deserve to get terrible incurable diseases don't..."

They could call it; "Karma is K@k"

Mad Bob can't live forever, the gates of death await him just as it awaits us all! Only, in his case, he's already very old...

[Blurock]

Lance Armstrong's use of drugs may mislead innocent young drug users to think that it's cool to ride a bike!