Lance Armstrong to be charged with doping?

[oilyfan]

The fact that he never failed a test, officially, doesn't hold a lot of water with me. First of all he did fail tests but because of test protocol problems they never surfaced. Also many athletes know how to use PED's during training but stop just enough in advance to let the drugs wash out of the system. And then the drugs he is alleged to have used like EPO and HGH are hard to detect.

Why would teammates, guys who rode with him for years and shed blood sweat and tears, turn on him for no reason? There is too much evidence against Lance, I am glad this has come to its natural conclusion. He was arrogant in the face of these allegations and respected no ones authority over him, time's up bid.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

Give up on going after (potential) cheating of the past. Focus on the present. If he did cheat, everyone else was also cheating, most likely. You can't change the past, but you can change the present

As of right now, I'd still tend to think he's innocent. No positive tests, everyone who would testify against him has so much to gain by doing so.


Baseball has this problem too. MLB almost certainly knew that McGuire and Sosa, etc, were taking stuff, and chose to turn a blind eye. You could argue that they encouraged it. However, now those players are being shunned by the media, the league, and the public, and I don't think it's fair. McGuire, Bonds and Armstrong all have never failed a drug test. It's time to let them all be and let them keep their records instead of wasting time on resources on them.

As far as I'm concerned McGuire, Bonds and Sosa and the commissioner of baseball should all be put in jail. They ruined a great game.

Armstrong, probably being stripped of his titles is good enough as from what I hear everyone was cheating and had been cheating for years.

As for the Olympics, all I can say is that the US and the USSR etc. had great medical researchers and doctors to get away with their cheating for years. There were rumours Ben Johnson had a drink spiked before his race. He had a good doctor who had guided him successfully through tests for years so why did he get caught this time? Yeah sure he was cheating but so was everyone else.

[ricosuave]

http://www.boxingsocialist.com/profi...ource=activity

[Jason14h]

As far as I'm concerned McGuire, Bonds and Sosa and the commissioner of baseball should all be put in jail. They ruined a great game.

It could also be argued they saved the game after the strike.

As for Armstrong, the "Tired of fighting allegations" is right up there with everything this guy does. Total BS.

More like "Instead of being proven a liar and a cheat in court I'll accept a stripping of all my titles so my charity can continue to exist"

Here's a amusing article : http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mor...&sct=hp_t11_a0

[Five-hole]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

Here's a amusing article : http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mor...&sct=hp_t11_a0

That article gives me the heebie-jeebies. "I have believed, for several years, that Lance Armstrong is guilty." Who gives a $@%! what you believe? It's not the court of public opinion man. Oh wait, it's the United States. Yes it is.

[Bigtime]

An interesting read from Slate:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/..._to_2005_.html

[troutman]

Heard on Jim Rome: "Live Strong - the V is silent".

[TorqueDog]

No evidence = not proven guilty = GTFO USADA.

[troutman]

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/12...-stripped.aspx

VN: Were you satisfied with evidence that you had amassed, and were you confident in your case?

TT: Absolutely. We never would have brought a case if we were not extremely confident in the level of evidence. And the truth – at the end of the day, our job is to search for truth and justice, to expose the full truth and ensure, to the best of our ability, perfect justice.

VN: Are you surprised by what happened, that this didn’t go to arbitration?

TT: No, I think it was our expectation from the beginning. He knows all the evidence as well and he knows the truth, and so the smarter move on his part is to attempt to hide behind baseless accusations of process. It is pretty telling because the federal court was crystal clear on Monday that our process meets constitutional due process, and that is the appropriate forum for the evidence to be presented and all the arguments to be made.

VN: There was reportedly a lot of evidence in the case, there was witness testimony and presumably more…do you expect any of those details to emerge?

TT: Yes, absolutely…at the right time. Obviously there are other cases that are alleged to be involved in the conspiracy. Their cases are still proceeding, so it will be in due course.

VN: So there is no impediment to USADA releasing the evidence?

TT: No, no.

[Azure]

lol.

If the evidence is so clear, why don't they actually come forth with it? This whole case is ridiculous.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

Give up on going after (potential) cheating of the past. Focus on the present. If he did cheat, everyone else was also cheating, most likely. You can't change the past, but you can change the present

As of right now, I'd still tend to think he's innocent. No positive tests, everyone who would testify against him has so much to gain by doing so.


Baseball has this problem too. MLB almost certainly knew that McGuire and Sosa, etc, were taking stuff, and chose to turn a blind eye. You could argue that they encouraged it. However, now those players are being shunned by the media, the league, and the public, and I don't think it's fair. McGuire, Bonds and Armstrong all have never failed a drug test. It's time to let them all be and let them keep their records instead of wasting time on resources on them.

What exactly do they have to gain?

[SeeBass]

Does anybody doubt that Barry Bonds was on steroids, cause he never failed a drug test either.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by Azure

lol.

If the evidence is so clear, why don't they actually come forth with it? This whole case is ridiculous.

What? They're supposed to reveal evidence that is most likely highly confidential in nature to the public? Are you serious?

Edit: Apparently not confidential, but unable to be released due to other ongoing proceedings. My mistake.

[chemgear]

http://sports.nationalpost.com/2012/...se-this-fight/


“Pain is temporary … if I quit, however, it lasts forever. That surrender, even the smallest act of giving up, stays with me. So when I feel like quitting, I ask myself, which would I rather live with?” — Lance Armstrong,
. . .

“There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say, ‘Enough is enough,’” Armstrong wrote in a statement. “For me, that time is now.”

[valo403]

Originally Posted by Azure

Instead of spending all that money on these allegations against Lance, they should have donated it to his cancer foundation.

I love this line of thinking. The guy could drown a dozen kittens and there'd be people out there pointing at their stupid yellow wristbands pretending like nothing happened.

The charity is great, but it doesn't get you a free pass on everything else.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by valo403

I love this line of thinking. The guy could drown a dozen kittens and there'd be people out there pointing at their stupid yellow wristbands pretending like nothing happened.

The charity is great, but it doesn't get you a free pass on everything else.

It's Not About the Lab Rats


If Lance Armstrong went to jail and Livestrong went away, that would be a huge setback in our war against cancer, right? Not exactly, because the #famous nonprofit donates almost #nothing to scientific research.

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor....html?page=all

“The issue with Lance Armstrong isn’t whether he has done good for cancer victims,” accounting professor Mark Zimbelman wrote on his blog Fraudbytes, in a post comparing Mortenson to Armstrong, “but rather, whether he first cheated to beat his opponents, then used his fraudulent titles to help promote an organization that appears to do good but also enriches a fraudster.”

Others noticed an annoying tendency: whenever questions about doping arose, Armstrong and his supporters changed the subject to his cancer work, a tactic that the bicycling website NY Velocity called “raising the cancer shield.”

Nobody can doubt Armstrong’s empathy for cancer patients or his power to inspire. In certain instances, though, he has leveraged this charitable appeal for personal gain. During his comeback, the lines between Cancer Lance and Business Lance became especially blurry.

[Flash Walken]

I'd be more mindful on what limbs I climbed out on at this point.

[darklord700]

Could someone please explain how can the US strip the titles awarded by France?

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

An interesting read from Slate:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/..._to_2005_.html

That reminds me of an article I read a few years ago. The author, a former competitive cyclist, used a combination of anecdotal experience, statistical evaluation of race times before and after EPO became available, and game theory to build a case that basically all of the top bike racers were cheating. If they strip Armstrong's wins, chances are whoever is next in line was just as bad.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by darklord700

Could someone please explain how can the US strip the titles awarded by France?

It's not awarded by France, it's awarded by the International Cycling Union (UCI), who is a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Code, as is USADA. A decision by one is binding on any other signatory. The catch here is that Armstrong bowed out before the process was completed, so USADA must submit "a reasoned decision explaining the action taken" before the UCI will be bound.

Lots more Q&A here: http://deadspin.com/5937611/what-the...tions-answered