Now that Lance Armstrong has stepped down from the board of the Livestrong Foundation, the charity he founded after his cancer diagnosis, his public disgrace seems complete. The once-lionized cycling star, stripped of his Tour de France titles due to overwhelming evidence that he engaged in doping, is now a symbol of moral failure and diminished hope.
But that doesn’t mean supporters of the Livestrong Foundation need to stop wearing the yellow rubber bracelets that once referenced Armstrong’s racing colors. Whatever sins Armstrong committed in the world of racing, they don’t erase the good work that the foundation has done in fighting cancer — or the role those faddish bracelets have played in fostering a sense of community.
Comments
Doping or no, Lance Armstrong's seven Tour de France victories are among the greatest sports achievements ever accomplished. I know what he went through because I watched every one of them live. Someday the stats will come out as to how many of the top racers were kicked out of the Tour during the race all through that time period. Lance was tested dozens and dozens of times during those races. Was he just the smartest cheat of them all? Probably. I just wish he would come out and admit to whatever it was he was doing. Americans are pretty forgiving when people come out and admit they did something wrong in the name of competition, it's the American way.
Yes but he hasn't admitted anything, he simply dropped his appeals. We're still waiting for his Come to Jesus moment. And forgiveness is a wonderful thing but in the Catholic Church in which I was raised, the sacrament of confession would absolve your sins but it had to be a sincere confession in which you not only acknowledged your fault but had the sincere intention not to sin again. He hasn't done any of that. Of course I'm an Episcopalian now, my wife won the coin toss when we got married, and part of what the Protestant reformation turned out to be about is that only two of the seven sacraments are actually in the bible, the Church made up the other five to keep the suckers in line and the money rolling in. Then Guttenberg invented the printing press, people started learning to read, they read the bible, they started asking awkward questions, the Pope didn't have any convincing answers and the jig was up. So, no confession in the Protestant denominations, the sacrament of confession is all made up bushwah. No charge for the history lesson.
Perhaps the answer to doping is not to ban it but to require full disclosure and the sharing of glory and prize money with your source.
Yes, wear the bracelet, tell the world that you were conned by a fraud. Maybe I'll switch to supporting the Osama bin Laden foundation, after all, he was a generous philanthropist in addition to the occasional instance of mass murder.
Bad example Harry. Maybe compare him to Roger Clements or Barry Bonds but Osama Bin Laden? Armstrong never killed anyone as far as I know. The point is about fighting cancer with an association to a strong person, a fighter. Armstrong used drugs to fight cancer, he apparently used drugs to fight his opponents in France on his bike. Drugs are good for some things but not for others, right? You can't say Armstrong is not a fighter. He's human, flawed, tragic and determined.
The Livestrong Foundation might have done and continue to do great work but their association to Lance Armstrong is too deep. I think a name change and a bracelet change is in order. After all Armstrong used the last part of his name when naming the foundation. He has been exposed as too much of a fraud to continue with the bracelets. Possibly if he would just own up and apologize, it might be OK to remain but he does not seem inclined to do that.
I continue to wear the wristband that has been part of my arm since 2004, and I will always be grateful to Lance Armstrong for his part in advancing cancer survivorship and turning my cancer diagnosis into a call to help others.