Essay The Leadership of Lance Armstrong

“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,

Greg Thomas, a 57-year-old man from Minnesota, was avidly searching for a miracle after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Thomas was given only months to live after doctors determined he had stage four cancer in his head and neck. Doctors even went as far as to tell his family to start planning his funeral. Even though he didn't have much strength, Thomas liked to deal with the stress of his illness by walking his dog.

In 1996, at the age of 25 Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer that spread to his brain, lungs and abdomen. He educated himself about the cancer and its treatment. While combating with cancer he recognized the resources available for people combatting this cancer were very less. Therefore, he created a foundation with the purpose of helping others who are diagnosed with cancer. It is a non-profit organization.

I really didn’t know much about Lance Armstrong before reading this book. I knew that he was a record-breaking seven-time winner of the Tour De France and a cancer survivor, but other than that, I wasn’t really all that interested in cycling or Lance Armstrong. Yet I still decided to read the book. As I read along in the book I became more engrossed. I felt like he portrayed a lot of qualities that every man should have. One of those qualities is his “never give-up” mentality. It is said that his mother taught him at a young age how to keep striving and to never give up. I really feel like that is the main reason he overcame cancer and pushed himself to break the record of winning the Tour De France seven times. When the doctors diagnosed him with cancer he was unsure about some things. They told him that he only had a small chance of surviving, but lance never gave up and was determined to beat the disease. He researched a lot about the disease and he believed that his commitment played a significant role in overcoming the disease. Even when everyone gave up on him (including his own cycling team), he still managed to come back and eventually win the Tour De

Lance has always been a fun and kind person who always pushes through in hard times. Last year, during one of the testing days, when we got to go to school late, I went surfing with him and some other friends from the team. We had been out for an hour or so, and the waves had started to get bigger and bigger. I had just caught a wave and was paddling back out when Lance took off on a massive one farther out. I watched as he dropped in and he hit his board very weirdly; he got worked. It turns out he'd broken his ankle and we had to go in. (rush back to shore?)

Blood doping may be most known from lance Armstrong, who admitted to Oparh to using the blood doping method to win the Tour de France seven times (Pretot, 2012). Because of this he lost all of his credit and isn’t the only one to do so. Many former Olympians have been tricked into doping by their coaches as well and have lost all credit for former actions and achievements. It gives athletes an unfair advantage because the doped athlete has much more oxygen in their blood which allows them to perform for longer periods of time without feeling the effects. Blood doping is banned by the International Olympic Committee for this reason and the World Anti-Doping Agency is trying to eliminate it. Many have done blood doping by their own choice as well which not only takes away their right to compete but also damages their health considerably. It is stated that "EPO tipped the sporting world upside down so that cynical doctors and drug gurus, rather than talent and training, came to dominate results (Schwarts, 2013)."

Cycling’s reputation has been tarnished due to the common practice of doping. There have been several high profile cyclists that have been found to engage in this practice with the most famous being Lance Armstrong. In response the IOC and WADA have developed more efficient testing, but the athletes still have found a way to beat the system. In recent years more effective tests have been developed to see if a cyclist is doping.

Lance Armstrong was born September 18, 1971 in Plano, Texas. Armstrong was always athletic, and had quickly discovered that he had a love for triathlons, particularly cycling. According to the website Bio True Story, “He began running and swimming at ten years old, and took up competitive cycling and triathlons…at thirteen. At sixteen, Armstrong became a professional tri-athlete [and] was the national sprint-course triathlon champion in 1989 and 1990,” at the ages of eighteen and nineteen respectfully (Bio. True Story, 2013). Bio True Story goes on to state that 1989 and 1990 were very eventful years for Armstrong. During 1989 “Armstrong chose to focus on cycling, his strongest event as well as his favorite. This was also the year that,

Lance Armstrong, the former professional road racing cyclist, was born 18th September 1971 in Dallas, Texas as an only child to his mother (Linda Armstrong) and father (Edward Gunderson). Linda later married Terry Armstrong in 1974. Terry was a strict disciplinarian who struggled to tolerate Lance’s rambunctious nature, which meant that the two never bonded, despite Terry legally adopting and raising Lance as his own.

In the end, Lance Armstrong was a very good cyclist and a very talented young man. Now aged 46, he has 2 children and a wife. He was world famous for what he accomplished at a younger age. In 1999, he managed to win the Tour de France at only the age of 28. He was an extraordinarily skilled cyclist and he enjoys the feeling of it. He has it perfectly set up for his talent being able to be enjoyed. He, the man who won the Tour de France seven times, was a

Doug Ulman, CEO of the Livestrong Foundation, did not scapegoat Lance Armstrong by continually associating Armstrong with Livestrong. January 17th and 18th of 2013, Lance Armstrong had admitted to cheating in his Tour de France wins and lying under oath publicly in an interview on the Oprah Winfrey Show. As a result, #LieStrong and #LiveWrong started to flood the internet. Ulman still wanted to take pride in Armstrong’s involvement in the charity. Ulman stated, “I tell our team all the time Lance Armstrong is the founder of the organization. Till this day is still the number one financial contributor and were not going to rewrite that history,” in TIME Magazine interview. (TIME,2013) Livestrong lost its major partnership with Nike. Nike had

In 1990, he was invited to train with the junior U.S National team in Colorado Springs and then to travel to Moscow for his first big international race. When Lance turned seventeen, he received a call from the manager of the U.S National Cycling Team, Chris Charmichael, who invited Lance to go to Europe; it was then that his career as a professional cyclist began. By 1996, Lance became the world's top-ranked cyclist winning ten titles in every race from San Sebastián to the Tour Du Pont. At his best, Lance was on his way towards success in the Tour de France, when he received some distressing news; he had cancer.

After surviving and recovering from testicular cancer Lance Armstrong wants to tell his journey of living. According to the author he wanted write to inspire people who has been in the same situation he was in. His foundation called the Lance Armstrong Foundation was his way to tell the importance of fighting and living. It didn’t stop there he wanted to enjoy every second of his life and he even witness his twin daughters birth.

The interview with the Livestrong president, Doug Ulman, tells us something very surprising. After people had discovered that all of Armstrong’s winnings were won by blood doping, he had been kicked out of his own organization, The Lance Armstrong Foundation. Once he had been kicked out, they changed the name from The Lance Armstrong Foundation to The Livestrong Foundation. No one wanted Lance Armstrong’s name associated with their organization, or with anything in fact. It was then assumed that Armstrong would never be accepted back into his foundation, but Ulman tells us “[i]f he decided that being a leader in the cancer community is what he wants to spend his life doing… the foundation would welcome him

In August 1988 he was taken to hospital where he found out he had tuberculosis, because of this he then spends 3 months in 2 different hospitals. Once he was