January 19, 2013

Sports, Drugs, and Lance

I'm writing this post because I really think we all need to cut Lance Armstrong some slack. Yes, he used drugs. Yes,  he lied about it. And yes, he won the Tour de France while doped. But I think everyone also needs to bear these things in mind as they continue bashing Lance:

Drug usage is a fact of life in high-profile, high-paying sports. Any sport, pick a sport, if it's professional, top-level sports, then 90% of the the top performers in it are on PED (Performance Enhancing Drugs) of one kind or another. As Durianrider said, unless you're talking about archery or curling, they're likely on drugs. It's just a fact of living in this cynical, all-about-money world. I'm sorry, I wish it wasn't like that, but there it is. As I think he said, he was just part of the "drug-culture" of high-performance cycling. Do I think that means he was right in doing so? No, certainly not. I just think we could all maybe be a little bit more sympathetic to his drug usage, especially given the fact that he (had) testicular cancer as well. At least that sort of gives him something of an excuse for doping... what's everyone else's?

If you were a champion (blank, pick a sport) athlete, and you were aware of drug usage in your sport, and you were aware that essentially all of the top performers in said sport were using drugs, would you decide to sacrifice your career for the sake of integrity? After all, if you don't use drugs, there's no way you can compete with everyone else. (who, likelier than not, do use drugs) I don't know that there are many people who can honestly say that they would've made a choice for integrity. In fact, given what I hear in business, politics, hollywood, and the like,  I know there aren't many people who would've made that choice... , people sacrifice integrity for career momentum all the time, especially now, in difficult economic times.

So please, unless you can say you've never sacrificed integrity for personal advancement, and never would, cut Lance a little slack.

*Note: As soon as I can find the link to Durianrider's video on Lance Armstrong and drug use, I will be posting it*


1 comment:

  1. After reading a bunch of comments on a related Wired article, I've found out that most people aren't nearly as upset over the fact that Lance was doping, (a couple of them even went so far as to say good for him for doping up) as with how personally he took the accusations, and how vehemently he denied them. Hmmm.

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