Lance Armstrong Doping In Sport

“Anything is possible, but you have to believe and you have to fight.” Lance Armstrong voiced this thought when recalling his fight to cancer; however, some saw this remark as a regard to his fight against the doping allegations that were placed upon him in 2002. There is no doubt that Lance Armstrong was blood doping in order to become stronger, endurance-wise, for his Tour de France competitions; however, Armstrong founded a charity that not only promoted cancer awareness and research, but also early detection of cancer, using his survivorship as an example of courage to all fighting any type or severity of cancer. The Lance Armstrong foundation, which eventually became known as “Livestrong,” had a tremendous impact on people fighting cancer,

A number of prominent athletes have recently experienced a 'fall from grace,' because of the revelation that they used performance-enhancing drugs. Perhaps the most famous example of this phenomenon is Lance Armstrong. In an advertisement for Nike that his former sponsor now no doubt regrets, Armstrong is shown asking the viewer "what am I on? I'm on my bike, busting my ass six hours a day." Professional cycling is often cited as one of the sports in which doping is most endemic to its subculture, however a number of professional sports have been embroiled in drug scandals. Because of the many revelations about the number of baseball players who used steroids to get their record-breaking statistics, the 1990s are often called the 'steroid' era of baseball. The Olympic track and field star Marian Jones was stripped of her medals, after finally admitting to the use of performance-enhancing drugs (Lardon 2008). "Despite the health risks, and despite the regulating bodies' attempts to eliminate drugs from sport, the use of illegal substances is widely known to be rife. It hardly raises an eyebrow now when some famous athlete fails a dope test" (Savulescu, Foddy, & Clayton 2004).

I first learned about this topic on a television show I watch called Hawaii 5-O. The episode had a group of athletes that were blood doping in order to win bicycling races and to get a leg up on escaping the police after robbing their targets. It briefly explained what the group was doing, and why it made them have better stamina and bettered their athletic abilities. Then when Lance Armstrong was accused of many different types of performance enhancing drugs, he admitted to using blood doping among other techniques. He used the method of blood doping that utilizes EPO, which is a hormone that is produced in the kidney for RBC production. He was stripped of all the Tour de France titles in his possession and the bronze medal he won in the Olympics.

Understand that athletes want to be remembered, but is that really any reason to ruin your reputation and hurt yourself. Its not just profesionals that have been using performance- enhanced drugs. Teenagers have been using them too, American teens more than doubled in human growth hormones in the past year. Kids in high school have been under major stress and want to get scholorships to colleges. As a result of doping, high school athletes have been less focused on there school studies, and becauses of that they don’t get that scholarship anyways, because of there bad grades. Students that are taking human growth hormones get suspened from school for the number of days nessaccary and is not able to finish the rest of the sport season. Depending

Another connection between Lance and Armstrong is that greed was their tragic flaw. Macbeth and his wife were very greedy and weren't satisfied with the power they held. And they weren't going to stop until they ruled the whole kingdom. Him and his wife would go to any measure to do so. Armstrong had the desire to be the best in cycling, even if that meant cheating. He sued, bullied, and killed careers of innocent people. Not knowing all those people were just telling the truth. It's sad to see on the greatest American success stories to all be a lie. Everything was taken away from Armstrong; money, sponsors, supporters, and respect. Macbeth's tragic downfall ended in death. Both characters had a spiraling downfall and this is why cheaters and liars never win.

After overcoming cancer and winning seven Tour de France races, Armstrong confessed that he had been using steroids. Fred Bowen of the Washington Post commented that “Armstrong cheated to win his championships. He took drugs and treatments that were against the rules to help make himself stronger and to pedal faster and farther” (Bowen). He also reported that Armstrong also lied for years about whether he took drugs, and he bullied anyone who said he had cheated.” That doesn’t sound too heroic. And even though Armstrong eventually confessed and showed remorse, it wasn’t quite the same as Gawain’s shameful green girdle. The cyclist had won seven Tour de France expeditions. There’s not a chance that his use of steroids was a one-time occurrence. While someone like Gawain had immediately shown regret for his misdeed, Armstrong held his in secrecy for a number of years. That is not a trait of a modern hero. A modern hero is honest and trustworthy, and makes accomplishments on his or her own natural abilities. It’s what’s valued in many cultures, and what separates modern heroes from those of classics. There is no Zeus to intervene and make life better (or possibly worse) in human

Ken Caminiti was the first baseball player to admit to using steroids; he never thought he was doing anything illegal because everyone around him was doing it: “I can't say, 'Don't do it,' not when the guy next to you is as big as a house and he's going to take your job and make the money” (gtd. in Zacharias). Recently, cheating has gotten really ruthless. Some athletes might even go to the extreme, like seven times tour de France winner Lance Armstrong did with blood doping; which is a way of boosting the amount of red blood cells in the bloodstream in order to an athletes performance. Everyone from the

Lance Armstrong, who was previously mentioned, was one of the greatest bikers of all time. He used PEDs and his reputation was tarnished and he had many racing medals stripped away from him. According to Lance himself on Oprah, he openly stated that a lot of his fans were disappointed with the International Biking Committee’s ruling. This is the most important source for this perspective due to the fact it came from one of the steroid users himself. A former major league baseball player named Sammy Sosa stated he didn't need steroids to break records, rather he just used them for health purposes. This was following his suspension after his 70 homerun season for the Chicago Cubs. (Einbaum, 2010). Willie Einbaum is an ESPN column writer and is biased because he writes columns in which he supports PED use. Many people including Willie Einbaum are very pleased with Sammy Sosa’s impact on the game. These two athletes set new standards to the national league and to the entire MLB. They have showed that PEDs benefit athletes with natural talent and helped shape the game of baseball. Also, there are those who believe PEDs should be legal in professional sports is because it has made the game fair in the past and if legalized, it will promote equality. If international sports/doping organizations allow the use of PEDs, athletes will actually be put in even conditions.

Armstrong’s adamant denial of doping allegations and perception as a media darling, powered his scandal into the public limelight. However, maybe the all-time single sports-wide doping scandal is one that will never be forgotten. The lingering effects of the PED scandal that rocked Major League Baseball, still sends waves of repercussions across America’s game.

Imagine playing a sport, having fun but then,someone rushes by or tackles you,looking buffed up and clearly on steroids cheating and winning the game. This carries on throughout the game as they keep on beating you and your team from size,strength and speed. Clearly this isn’t fair and makes the sport you play not fun. One quote was from one of Armstrong's former teammates,“Tyler Hamilton, who was forced to return his 2004 Olympic gold medal after being found guilty of doping. In recent public appearances, Hamilton has implored young athletes to resist the temptation to dope.” He then said to kids who take steroids,"There's so much pressure on winning—it's tough for these kids to stay true to themselves," he said (Crary).” Student athletes should be drug tested before they’re allowed to play because they might cheat, it could affect their health earlier in life, and they might have to suffer major consequences.

Think back to 1999. The Foo Fighters were one of the most popular bands in the United States, Bart Simpson starred on thousands of Americans television screens and that summer, Lance Armstrong won his first Tour de France. With his win, the world started to question his ability and how amazingly he ascended into the Alps. The thought of illegal, sport enhancing drugs came about. Drugs are a form of cheating, so it was not fair. It was not the first hearing of the drug, but it was the first at the turn of the century. Doping has been around for many years. Humans will continue to use illegal substances, no doubt about that, however if we imply stricter regulations, it will make it harder for athletes to cheat.

If an athlete is willing to do everything in his power to help his team succeed, then he should not be ashamed of that. The choices made by the participants should be exactly that, their choices. The acceptance of risk is strictly up to the user and should not be forced upon them by a higher authority. Professional sports should be looked at for what they are, a money-making

Reasons for this is being: he coerced other teammates to take steroids, he violated the terms of his sponsorship with USPS, and, he let down many Americans that supported him. First of all, Lance Armstrong

If Lance Armstrong did not win the Tour de France, it is almost certain that another roided up dude would have. Essentially, Lance was the best roided up man, and he had survived testicular cancer. Of course it is arguable that his team won it for he couldn’t do it alone, but there is always that superhero of a sport. The forwards in football, the quarterbacks in NFL all take credit as heroes. Make reference to the book “Good advice from bad people featuring Lance Armstrong” Make mention on the

Doping has widely become known as the use of banned substances and practices by sports personnel particularly athletes in an attempt to improve sporting performances. No sensible fan of sport today denies the prevalence of drugs in virtually every major sport, yet none would argue they can ever be eliminated completely. Money alone would seem to guarantee that much. High profile athletes today are competing for high stakes, not just millions, but dozens of millions. The fear of losing everything career, opportunity, contracts, name, fame, and money is pushing more sportsmen all over the world to use performance enhancing drugs, mainly