A Word About Lance
By now we’ve all seen Lance Armstrong’s Oprah interview, or clips of it, or heard it second hand from media outlets or friends. It’s not as if we didn’t know the story before he finally decided to fess up, but it is quite something else altogether to actually hear him admit it: I cheated. Having watched the interview in full, it was definitely cringe-worthy in parts. Oprah, predictably went pretty easy on him and he didn’t really do much to quell the notion that the only reason he’s coming out now is because he wants to be able to compete again. (The moment Oprah asked ‘why now?’ and Lance made it about his kids would be one of the cringe-worthy moments to which I refer).
Inches and inches have been written about this and I’m not sure I can add much more to it. One of the most powerful pieces I read last week was Nicole Cooke’s retirement statement which shed a much needed light on where this puts cycling as a sport, particularly for women.
I think this Lance issue raises some really interesting questions about the psyche of an athlete. I personally have started to think more about the notion of winning at all costs. I mean, there’s wanting a win badly, then there’s wanting to win so badly you’ll drug yourself up, discredit an entire sport, continually lie and cover it up, drag other people into your lies, sue anyone who tries to tell the truth and continue about your every day life as an athlete as if nothing is wrong. I think it’s difficult to deny at this point that there were many other riders on the Tour who also doped, many of whom have come forward and spoken about the pressure they felt to do so. This has also made me really think about peer pressure on the professional circuit. Obviously they all knew what they were doing was wrong, but there seems to have been this attitude of ‘if everyone is doing it, I have to do it to be on a level playing field’. Everyone has their flaws, of course but I guess I’m as guilty as everyone else of thinking of athletes as kind of super human. Knowing the mental strength my own physicality brings me, I find it really disheartening that professional athletes can be swayed that way, to partake in something illegal and immoral, but it’s important that it’s being told – we need to be able to understand that this happens and why it does.
Basically what I’m saying is that I kinda wish I was a sports psychologist right now. The mental part of this, what triggers those decisions in an athlete really fascinates me.
Obviously this whole debate has shed a light on professional athletes (particularly cyclists), but my thoughts turn to us regular street athletes. How do you guys feel about it? What do you think it means for us, if anything? Has it made you feel any differently about the way you train and compete? Do you think this is a scandal that purely effects the pros or is it something we should all be paying attention to?
Give me your thoughts people! What say ye?
I personally don’t feel it’s relevant to me as I am not a professional athlete and will never be faced with a team that says “everyone’s doping. if you don’t do it, you’ll never win”. Lance got carried away like so many of his contemporaries by the desire to win and by knowing that he had no chance in hell to win without ‘help’. That was his mistake. BUT for the sport/America/media to make him into a hero and then a villain? – Hmmm… I hope this means that athletes will no longer be required to be superheroes or to be viewed as superheroes who never ever fail…, but I have a feeling that’s not about to happen…
I don’t think it has a great deal of bearing on ‘street athletes’ because it’s not as if we look up to them as idols or try to emulate them. As adults we don’t really do that so much. My concern in this would be for all the young ‘uns out there who DO look up to the likes of Lance and would maybe be thinking of a career in sport. Finding out that their hero has lied to such a degree could be damaging to their future intentions.
I’m with MrsB on the final point she made though, I’m not sure we should be turning these athletes into villains. It’s not ONLY the fault of the athletes for partaking but a major fault of the industry for putting them in the position where it’s expected.
The industry is at serious fault here and the athletes shouldn’t be the only ones taking the hit for such a shambolic mess.
Although I didn’t believe all that he said and i didnt like the way he said some things, and yes he did cheat, a lot. One fact cannot be erased is that he still raised $500 million for cancer charities.
I wasn’t going to comment but I strongly disagree with the notion of it almost being okay as he’s raised a lot of money for charity.
Regardless of the cause, I would be appalled if the face of any cause I created who was there as an example of going against the odds and going out there to go and win one of the hardest competitions in the World was then found to have done it through cheating.
Im not condoning anything, i think hes a psychopath…the interview showed how little emotion he feels towards what he did. He failed to really take on the weight of his actions.
The way he called himself names was really insulting above all as it was a ploy against getting attacked by oprah…
Im just saying that he did raise all that money, with the same devotion to the cause as he put into winning titles, i pointed out that he lied and cheated and he is a creep…but on another hand 500 MILLION dollars is nothing to be sniffed at and i dont think he’s the only one who could be ployed with that kind of incentive.
Not you, or i but that money still exists for the good cause it went towards.
I think the worst thing for me out of all of this was the way he went about it. Not only did he cheat, but on all accounts he was a really rather nasty person whilst doing so – bullying, intimidating, even suing people that were trying to get the truth to come out (I recently watched this interview with David Walsh on The ST website: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/public/article1192199.ece – having not known anything about the whole legal battle with the paper I found it fascinating). What kind of example is that setting for young people? That you can bully your way to success?
One of the great things I’ve found about partaking in ‘sport’ as an adult is the community, the friendliness, sharing experiences and advice etc. So in a way I don’t really feel like it has anything to do with me, as it’s so far removed from my training experiences. I just hope it doesn’t discourage others from partaking in sport (particularly cycling) in the future.
If nothing else Lance made me think about what kind of impact I want to leave. Is winning the goal at all costs? Not for me. I want to have impact, but not the immediate can disappear at any moment impact. I want life lasting impact. In one of my last blog posts I reflect exactly on this question. http://www.living4impact.com/2013/01/19/living-with-the-right-kind-of-impact/