Lance Armstrong gives up on fighting USADA charges

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Permalink Reply by Duppie on August 28, 2012 at 10:58am

Wait? Glenn Beck raped and murdered a young girl? Why is there no serious investigation? Why don't the mainstream media pick up on this important story...?

Zoetrope said:

You poor thing. Reference here http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/2009/09/03/internet-hoax-says-glenn...

Cameron Puetz said:

Do you know that Tygart is into child porn, or are you making unfounded accusations to start a witch hunt against someone that you don't like? USADA's policies are questionable at best and the organization needs to be massively reformed or disbanded. However calling Tygant a pedophile with no evidence to support the claim is sinking below his level.

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Permalink Reply by Zoetrope on September 1, 2012 at 3:13am

By far my favorite piece written about doping, and sums up my thoughts pretty well on the Lance saga.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2012/08/31/160359815/doping-its-just-...

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Permalink Reply by dana on September 2, 2012 at 4:19am

Here's how science works. You make a hypothesis then design a test to obtain your data. If you don't get results to support your hypothesis, either you're wrong or the test is wrong. Lance has never had a positive test or he would have been disqualified already. If USADA doesn't believe their own data, why bother collecting it? If the test isn't sensitive enough, design a better test or shut the F up.

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Permalink Reply by Zoetrope on September 2, 2012 at 6:51am

The author is clearly making a philosophical argument, not splitting hairs. And I don't think anyone other than the sponsors and other league officials who pad their pockets via athletes hard work cares if you do or don't watch competitive cycling. That kid at the park playing b-ball on a net-less hoop, as well as pro athletes, will compete with or without an audience. Things like baseball and competitive cycling weren't dreamt up with dollar signs in the creators eyes, they were created to have fun, to be a challenge, a release...a means to "self actualize."

Now, it's highly likely if there were no money involved in pro sports, there would be no or at least not nearly as much doping. That these games serve to feed athletes families, charities, media driven ego's and on and on... only raises the stakes exponentially. There is so much to lose, and so much to gain, how can you reasonably expect an athlete not the bend the rules or cheat? Until you take the money out of these sports you will see doping, plain and simple. And really, that is just not realistic the way our culture is set up, what with the way we rely on these sports for so many things -- emotional and monetary. Lastly, if you're just a spectator, why the hell do you care? My genuine advice is to get used to it. Teach your kids your values, and move on. Or maybe just don't have kids...so they will never be corrupted by these evil athletes and their unborn souls will forever remain pure and angelic.

kiltedcelt said:

Ah, that's bullshit. Doping is illegal, plain and simple. It's not about splitting hairs or semantics. A rider dopes or they don't. If they used doping to gain an edge then they should be disqualified, period. I used to give Lance the benefit of the doubt, but now that he's copped out, I honestly don't believe him anymore. The fact that so many top riders have been busted for doping is pretty much why I don't bother watching pro cycling anymore. Why bother watching a sport when you don't know if the person you're rooting for is a cheating scumbag?

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Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on January 14, 2013 at 1:35pm

Armstrong even shed a tear for Oprah...

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Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on January 14, 2013 at 2:35pm

I wanted to watch this but missed it.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on January 14, 2013 at 2:43pm

You won't miss it until Thursday night. It taped today.

Julie Hochstadter said:

I wanted to watch this but missed it.

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Permalink Reply by Vince Zaworski on January 14, 2013 at 5:00pm

IMHO last ICU season, which appeared to me to be clean, or at least cleaner, was the best in years. Riders actually struggled and didn't have magical, inhuman recoveries after a rough day in the mountains. To me sports are about the limits of human strength and endurance, not scientifically enhanced abilities. The cheating takes away the human factor.

The sad thing is all this could have been avoided if people just paid attention to the lessons Rocky III taught us. You know, when Rocky trained by cleaning chicken coops and shoveling manure to defeat the chemically and hormonically enhanced evil Russian, Drago, played by Dolf Lundgren. Now that's a true American fictitious hero.

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Permalink Reply by Zoetrope on January 14, 2013 at 5:05pm

Boring. This coming days before Lance sits down with Oprah to spill the beans. Such brave journalism. You expect me to believe that someone who has made a career out of writing and investigative journalism (Pulitzer prize winning no less) was duped so easily by Lance? This is merely an attempt by Bissinger to save face and whatever small amount of credibility he has left. In his plea for forgiveness he says "I do believe in staking out strong positions. We all do as columnists today, because of the world we live in, craving to differentiate ourselves from the thousands who populate the Internet every hour." And there you have the reason he defended Lance for so long. To make a buck. I don't blame him, but lets call it what it is. This guy couldn't spot the liar in Lance because he didn't want to look at the one in himself.

Best of all, Buzz gets to direct all his self hatred at Lance in the second part of the article. What a relief. What a bunch of shitty theater this whole thing is. If the coverage this is getting isn't criminal, it's got to be the next closest thing.

John Durham said:

One of Lance's biggest defenders has written a pretty scathing article wherein he describes being deceived by him, and how much it angers him. Also pretty peeved with himself for not seeing the manipulation earlier, despite plenty of warning signs.

Linky

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Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on January 14, 2013 at 5:08pm

I agree.

Zoetrope said:

Boring ...

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Permalink Reply by Haddon on January 14, 2013 at 5:52pm

I think there are two groups at the top of elite sports (cycing, track) and there is:

A) The group that dopes and gets caught

B) The group that dopes and doesn't get caught

There are no other groups, the pressures, rewards are so intense, I'd take steroids to improve my time by 3% if I was at that level. Look what it did for Lance.

This Podcast (Joe Rogan) is very very interesting and very, very listenable and features as guest Victor Conte one of the main guys of the BALCO scandal. Skip forward about 8 minutes to avoid the chatter and advertising. As a podcast episode it was featured on Boing Boing and I wouldn't mention it if it wasn't relevant and worth a listen. I found it fascinating and it goes quite a bit into the world of steroids and doping and all that.

H (biked today and it hurt)