Is Lance Armstrong the biggest cheater in sports of all time?

[DCL]

Lance Armstrong faces further allegations that he was at the center of a doping ring. (Reuters)

The United States Anti-Doping Agency has charged that Armstrong is the centerpiece of, in the agency's words, "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."
Eleven former teammates of Armstrong's are among 26 people who provided sworn testimony that the seven-time Tour de France winner used performance-enhancing drugs, encouraged others to do so and helped maintain the secrecy of the program.

"The [United States Postal Service] Team doping conspiracy was professionally designed to groom and pressure athletes to use dangerous drugs, to evade detection, to ensure its secrecy and ultimately gain an unfair competitive advantage through superior doping practices," the agency said in a press release. "A program organized by individuals who thought they were above the rules and who still play a major and active role in sport today"

Armstrong has consistently denied ever using any form of illegal drugs in the course of his historic career.In August he quit his fight against USADA, saying via statement, 'There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, 'Enough is enough.' "

USADA assembled a thousand-plus-page paper trail of interviews, financial statements and lab results. Teammates interviewed included George Hincapie, Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis. The report, the agency contends, is "conclusive and undeniable proof that brings to the light of day for the first time this systemic, sustained and highly professionalized team-run doping conspiracy."

Armstrong has not commented publicly on the report.His attorney sent a letter to USADA Tuesday which states that USADA acted as "prosecutor, judge, jury, appellate court and executioner."

The testimony is a devastating blow to the legacy of one of the most decorated athletes in all of sports. Armstrong won the Tour de France seven consecutive times and is a cancer survivor. The Lance Armstrong Foundation, through its LiveStrong outreach, has raised more than $325 million to spread awareness and assistance to victims of cancer through the sale of more than 72 million iconic yellow bracelets.

But Armstrong has also been the most visible face of a sport consistently tainted by allegations of doping. He had for years appeared to ride above the charges that brought down many of his fellow riders, including Landis and Hamilton. But as sporting agencies began to voice concerns about Armstrong, he fought back vigorously and consistently, contesting the sampling procedures, the handling of his samples and even the motivations and objectivity of the testing agencies.

USADA began to zero in on Armstrong in 2012. In June, the agency filed official charges of doping and drug trafficking, suspending him from competition in both cycling and triathlons. Two months later, after years of court action and public denials, Armstrong decided to stop his fight against USADA.

As a result, USADA served Armstrong with a lifetime band from sports that fall under its direction and indicated it will move to have Armstrong stripped of his seven Tour de France victories. UCI [International Cycling Union] will also have a say in the move to strip Armstrong of his titles. The Tour itself will wait for the UCI's verdict on the validity of the USADA's case.

Armstrong's problems aren't limited to the sporting arena. While a federal criminal investigation against Armstrong has been dropped, a Department of Justice investigation continues. Their question is whether Armstrong and his teammates fraudulently used taxpayer money in the form of U.S. Postal Service sponsorship dollars to perpetuate the illegal doping program.

[OhNoTimNoSho]

of ALL TIME

[DCL]

[niko]

No because he cheated a shitload in a sport where everyone cheats. Like literally everyone. It's a prerequisite. It makes it less ridiculous to me than say baseball where Bonds looked like a super hero compared to 95% of his teammates.

[Sarcastic]

[daily]

No because he cheated a shitload in a sport where everyone cheats. Like literally everyone. It's a prerequisite. .

End thread

[Godzuki]

considering Lance Armstrong was always praised for dominating a sport without having to cheat and just being a superior physical specimen all the while vehemently denying he cheated, he should be up there if the evidence is unquestionable. the problem is a lot of Americans will stick by him regardless of evidence. it seems many of them refuse to even entertain he cheated acting like they're just jealous and after him because he's American. and those people including probably many cancer patients will stay in his corner like kobe fanboys that don't want to admit any faults of their hero.

what annoys me are these public figures that deny to the very end, and they do it in a way where its so arrogant and sure of themselves they're innocent(like bonds). i despise those types of people IF they're really guilty in the end, since they're as much a liar as you could be in life. its just so insultingly dikkhead'sh of them to behave that way if they've been knowingly lying all along.

[tomtucker]

fukk the USADA.........lance is a hero for so many people around the world.......

[jbot]

don't know but as far as i can tell, there are a gagload of cyclists that cheat. he just happens to be the biggest cheater in that particular sport.

[DCL]

i kinda think being the biggest cheater is same as being the biggest fraud. and if all the accusations from his battalion of former teammates and close associates are true, lance armstrong is way up there in being the biggest fraud any sport has ever seen.

the guy won 7 tour de france titles and got all the highest glory to go with it. he fooled a lot of people. the level of deception also plays a role in being the biggest fraud because if huge sophisticated cover-ups are involved, that magnifies the cheating even more because it shows you're lying through your entire soul to claim that false glory, and few people got more glory than lance armstrong when he was winning.

lance armstrong received immense glory, so much, that some fans adored and placed him in almost a god-like level. they literally worshipped him. but if all that was a sham, then lance armstrong was an big-time fraud, deceiving all his fans. along with his beligerent denials and look-straight-at-your-eyes type of lying, no other athlete has ever come close to achieving so much through cheating, and lying with so much plotwork and planning. too bad he almost got away with it.

but now, he's got a fleet of teammates coming up and a mountain of evidences to break his fame. people like to call conspiracy, but the sh!t against him is just way too much.

[kNIOKAS]

He's Bill Clinton of our times, really.

[gigantes]

IMO the USADA and whoever else needs to make it clear to the public what the masking agents were and how they worked that enabled armstrong and all the rest to disguise their blood results for all those years.

armstrong is a hero and a legend-- if you're going to take him down, you sure as hell better not be half-assed about it. don't take him down for the sake of taking him down. take him down so you can totally clean up the sport.


meanwhile, barry bonds and others still walk around as fraudulent holders of lots of baseball records...

[Heavincent]

[Is He Ill]

IMO the USADA and whoever else needs to make it clear to the public what the masking agents were and how they worked that enabled armstrong and all the rest to disguise their blood results for all those years.

armstrong is a hero and a legend-- if you're going to take him down, you sure as hell better not be half-assed about it. don't take him down for the sake of taking him down. take him down so you can totally clean up the sport.


meanwhile, barry bonds and others still walk around as fraudulent holders of lots of baseball records...

[Rolando]

If you wanted to race with the big boys in Europe, you had to dope. That's the way it was and probably still is. Lance just ****ing dominated it through and through. He was the BOSS. Like a gangster, he ran the peloton and enforced the rules.

I hope he never comes clean. The ****ing piss-ants that ratted him out are bunch a frikken pu$$ies.