(*born 18 september 1971*)
(texas)
(diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996)
(wins 7 consecutive tour de frances)
(1999 – 2005)
(allegations of “doping”)
tour de france
3 july 2010 – 25 july 2010
21 days
3600 kilometers / 2200 miles
3 ‘grand slam’ cycling events
(may event through italy)
(august – september event through spain)
Lance Edward Armstrong (born Lance Edward Gunderson, September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road racing cyclist.
Armstrong had won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005, before he was banned for life and all his results going back to August 1998 were voided, as a result of long-term doping offenses.
At age 16, Armstrong began competing as a triathlete and was a national sprint-course triathlon champion in 1989 and 1990.
(in 1992, Armstrong began his career as a professional cyclist with the ‘Motorola’ team)
(age 21)
He had notable success between 1993 and 1996, including the World Championship in 1993, Clásica de San Sebastián in 1995, Tour DuPont in 1995 and 1996, and a handful of stage victories in Europe, including stage 18 of the 1995 Tour de France.
(in 1996, he was diagnosed with a potentially fatal metastatic testicular cancer)
(after his recovery, he founded the ‘Lance Armstrong Foundation’ (now the Livestrong Foundation) to assist other cancer survivors)
Returning to cycling in 1998, he was a member of the US Postal/Discovery team between 1998 and 2005, when he won his Tour de France titles, as well as a bronze medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics.
Armstrong retired from racing at the end of the 2005 Tour de France, but returned to competitive cycling with the Astana team in January 2009, finishing third in the 2009 Tour de France later that year.
Between 2010 and 2011, he raced with Team Radio Shack, the UCI ProTeam he helped found.
He retired for a second time in 2011.
Armstrong had been the subject of doping allegations ever since winning the 1999 Tour de France.
(in 2012, a “United States Anti-Doping Agency” investigation concluded that Armstrong had used performance-enhancing drugs over the course of his career and named him as the ringleader of “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen”)
(Armstrong chose not to contest the charges, citing the potential toll on his family)
(as a result, he received a lifetime ban from all sports that follow the World Anti-Doping Agency code—effectively ending his athletic career)
(he was also stripped of all of his achievements after 1998, including his 7 ‘Tour de France’ titles)
(the ‘Union Cycliste Internationale’ upheld USADA’s decision and decided that his stripped wins would not be allocated to other riders)
(Armstrong chose not to appeal the decision to the ‘Court of Arbitration for Sport’)
(in a 2013 interview, Armstrong confessed that some of the allegations were true)
(he has declined to testify about the full extent of his use of the drugs)
(in the aftermath of his fall from grace, a CNN article wrote that “The epic downfall of cycling’s star, once an idolized icon of millions around the globe, stands out in the history of professional sports”)
(“oprah winfrey” as a modern-day ‘confessor’)
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired January 17 and 18, 2013, on the Oprah Winfrey Network, Armstrong confessed that he has used banned performance-enhancing drugs throughout much of his cycling career, most recently in 2005.
He admitted that he used erythropoietin and human growth hormone, and that he had blood doped as well as falsifying documents saying he passed drug tests.
Doping helped him for each of his seven Tour de France wins, Armstrong told Winfrey. According to USADA, samples from Armstrong taken in 2009 and 2010 as well are “fully consistent with blood manipulation including EPO use and/or blood transfusions”.
Armstrong is fighting to avoid paying millions of dollars in prize money back.
(in a 2016 speech to University of Colorado, Boulder professor Roger A. Pielke, Jr.’s Introduction to Sports Governance class, Armstrong stated he began doping in “late Spring of 1995”)