Lance Armstrong ,Biography of Lance Armstrong ,Lance Armstrong: Winner, Survivor, Cheat...

                                        

                                                       Lance Armstrong

He is the world’s most famous cyclist, dominatinghis sport like no one before or since. Yet his reputation has been forever tarnishedby a scandal that tore at the very fabric of professional cycling, pitting the sportselite against each other. The doping scandal, however, was just onein a series of mountain-like obstacles that have confronted Lance Armstrong. The story of how he has overcome them is aninspirational story of perseverance, tenacity and self-belief. In this week’s Biographics, we explore thetumultuous life of Lance Armstrong. The Formative Years Lance Edward Armstrong was born as Lance Gundersonin Plano, Texas on September 18, 1971. His mother, Linda, was just seventeen anda high school dropout, while his biological father, Eddie Gunderson, was a route managerfor The Dallas Morning News.

The marriage was an unhappy one, with Eddieproving to be abusive and neglectful. They divorced when Lance was two years old. Before long, Linda had remarried. Lance’s step-father was a travelling salesmannamed Terry Armstrong. Armstrong was a stern, distant man who neverreally bonded with Lance during his formative years. Terry’s job kept him away from the homea lot. When he was home, he proved to be a harshdisciplinarian who would beat Lance with a paddle for any incursion. Not surprisingly, the boy looked forward tohis step-father’s work trips, when it was just he and his mother at home. As the years progressed, the family’s financesimproved and they moved to better neighborhoods.

They ended up in Richardson, where Linda signedup young Lance for swimming lessons. She also bought him a bicycle. Young Lance was an active, inquisitive child. He often got into fights, with one scufflegetting him kicked off the school bus, after which he rode his bicycle to school. He had a love of competitive sports, thoughhe never clicked with football, the dominant sport in Texas. Instead, he became passionate about runningand swimming. Young Lance had an abundance of energy. His favorite TV show was The Six Million DollarMan, and he loved nothing better than to run around the neighbourhood pretending to bethe bionic man as he chanted the words of the show’s theme song . . . ‘better, stronger,faster.’ From Richardson, the Armstrong’s moved toPlano, Texas, where Linda’s new job as a telecommunications company secretary enabledthem to buy their first house. It was here that they lived through the bulkof Lance’s schooling. He attended the Armstrong Middle School, WilliamsHigh and Plano East High.

 Linda bought her son his first serious bikewhen he was seven. It was a Schwinn Mag Scrambler BMX racingbike. The bike, along with a helmet and safety gear,cost three times more than Linda was hoping to spend, but she saw the value in gettingher son involved in an outdoor sport. Lance rode his Scrambler until he was 13,when his mother bought him a Mercier road bike. Lance’s competitive career began at agetwelve when he competed in the Plano Swim Club Champs. He achieved some success, but a year in hesaw a poster for a triathlon and decided to switch to the three-discipline event. His first triathlon was the Iron Kids, whichhe won handily. With his step-father often absent from thehome, Lance lacked a strong male role model during his formative years. That role was filled in his early teens byChris MacCurdy, his Plano swimming coach. MacCurdy trained Armstrong right through MiddleSchool and High School and encouraged him to compete on a national level and even toset his sights on the Olympics. Another man who took an interest in the teenageLance was the owner of the local bike shop, Jim Hoyt.

He gave the Armstrong’s discounts on equipmentand Lance managed to earn some money riding for events that were sponsored by Hoyt. When he was 14, Lance competed and won hisfirst duathlon, consisting of swimming and running. The prize was a one-hundred-dollar pair ofAvia running shoes. However, when the shoes arrived in the mail,they didn’t fit. The sales rep who came to the Armstrong homewith a replacement pair, Scott Eder, ended up taking Lance under his wing and takinghim to workouts and competitions. Eder took Lance to the Cooper Institute inDallas when the boy was 16. The researchers there tested his V02 Max,which came out at 79.5 percent. It was the highest they had ever seen. This meant that Lance had an incredible abilityto make use of every breath of oxygen that came into his body.

The testing also showed that he had the highestlactic acid threshold they had ever come across. Through his formative years, Lance had founda knack for getting himself into trouble. He and his mates would sneak into neighbor’shouses and steal beer from the fridge. On one occasion he and another boy glued themailbox of a man who they had argued with. The police came calling when he stole an ‘ArmstrongStreet’ sign as an ornament for his room. When he was sixteen, however, his mother toldhim that she was planning on leaving his stepfather. She urged Lance to stop getting into troubleas she wouldn’t be able to handle to stress that it would bring. Lance responded, channelling all of his energyinto his sporting events. Creating an Athlete Lance and Linda now spent most weekends together,travelling to 10k running events and triathlons that he competed in. During the week, Lance spent many hours goingon long rides with his cycling buddies. Linda helped her son to seek out sponsorswho would supply such things as shoes and jerseys. Every single sponsor received a handwrittenletter of thanks from Lance.

There are four competitive cycling categories. All riders start out at Cat Four. For Lance this meant Tuesday night criterionrides at the local Bike Mart. It wasn’t long before he moved up to CatThree, where he found himself training with a couple of Cat One guys. When he was sixteen, Lance was riding hisMercier racing bike along the Dallas countryside when he was apparently run off the road bya truck driver. A furious Lance, cursed at the driver fromthe asphalt. This caused the man to see red, and he stoppedhis truck and got out in a rage. Lance jumped to his feet and took off, butthe man trashed his bike. Before he left, Lance managed to record hisnumber plate. Linda proceeded to sue the man and win. She used the money to buy her son a new Raleighbike with racing wheels. Lance’s new bike didn’t last for long. Not long after receiving it, he was hit byan SUV while running a yellow light.

 He was thrown over the handlebars and ontothe hood of the SUV. He was lucky to get away alive, especiallysince he wasn’t wearing a helmet. He turned up at the hospital with a twistedfoot, some scrapes and a concussion. With his foot laced with stitches and in aheavy brace, Lance’s doctor told him to do nothing for the next three weeks. But there was just one problem – he hada triathlon race in six days. The doctor told him to forget about it. Instead he got rid of the brace on the secondday, cut out the stitches himself with a nail clipper and turned up on the starting linethat Saturday. He led the swim and the ride, eventually comingin third. When he heard about it, the doctor who hadtreated him could hardly believe it. By the time of his final year in high schoolin 1989, Lance was a national level cycling competitor. He had qualified to train with the juniornational team at Colorado in preparation for the World Junior Championships.

However, he faced some serious pushback fromhis school. Throughout his high school years, Lance hadmissed a lot of school due to his travelling around the countryside to compete. The school, however, had viewed the absencesas being on par with playing hooky. The told him that he did not have leave togo to Colorado, or, indeed, to follow on to Moscow to compete in the World Champs. The fact that cycling wasn’t even recognizedas a sport by Texas high schools at the time factored into their decision making. More was to come. Despite his working overtime to meet the requirement,a meeting was called where Lance and his mother were told that he would not be able to graduatewith his class that year. They didn’t care that he was an emergingelite athlete with an unprecedented opportunity to advance his career.

To them, Lance was a slacker. Linda soon got her son into a private schoolthat would let him graduate. The teachers at his new school, Bending OaksAcademy, were happy to work around Lance’s schedule to help him to complete his schooling. Armstrong’s fierce competitiveness broughthim to the attention of the coach of the US national cycling team, Chris Carmichael. Carmichael later noted . . . He was so aggressive that he’d either tearthe field apart and win or pull everyone after him so they’d blow by him at the end. Lance qualified for and competed in the JuniorWorld Champs in Moscow in 1989. This was to prove to be his breakout year. He got more attention than others becauseof his aggressive racing style. He broke away from the main group in the firstlap, riding in the front peloton and was right up there until the final thrust, where strongerriders pushed ahead of him. His performance at Moscow marked Armstrongas the most exciting new cyclist on the world stage. He showed himself to be an aggressive competitorwith the ability to focus like a laser beam on achieving his goals.

He was supremely confident, which was easyto read as arrogance. He also had no interest in riding as partof a team. He didn’t want anything to detract fromhis desire to cross the finish line first. Armstrong competed at his first Olympics atBarcelona in 1992. He later recalled that he ‘rode miserablyas an inexperienced hothead’ and finished a disappointing 14th in the road race. His performance, however, was enough to bringhim to the attention of the director of a professional team that was sponsored by Motorola. After the Games, Lance was signed onto theteam, which officially made him a professional athlete. Under the Motorola banner, Lance travelledto Europe in order to compete in a series of road races. His first race was in San Sebastian, Spainand he came in dead last. The crowd jeered at him when he crossed theline 30 minutes after the winner. Armstrong was deflated after this race andconsidered flying back to the United States. But, his coach convinced him to prove to himselfand his team-mates that he was no quitter and he stayed on. From race to race, he got better.

He came second in the Zurich Championships,finally telling himself that he was capable of doing this. One of Lance’s biggest challenges with Motorolawas to learn to work as part of a cycling team. He would quickly get frustrated with the otherriders in his peloton, yelling at them to, “Pull or get out of the way!” Competitors would try to frustrate him onpurpose, encouraging him to take the lead and wear himself out early. After just twelve months as a professionalcyclist, Lance had already earned the nickname “the King.” At the 1993 UCI Track Cycling World Championshipsin Oslo, Norway, the Motorola team decided that he was ready to take the title, and theywould work with him to win the race. Rather than rushing to the lead, he stayedin the peloton until the second-to-last lap, as instructed. Then he attacked to take the lead and staythere.

 Crossing the line well ahead of the competition,he bowed to the crowd, blew kisses and, in what was to become his trademark, pointedto the sky. Armstrong was now the world champion, butto truly be the best he knew he had to win the Tour de France. In 1995, he won a stage of the world’s greatestrace, dedicating the win to a team-mate who had died during a crash in the race. In August 1996 he signed a two-year contractwith the Cofidis Cycling team in France. Cancer In 1996, Lance noticed that his right testiclewas becoming swollen. This was followed by a dull ache and thena lack of energy. This affected his performance at the ’96Olympics and he had a disappointing finish. In his memoirs he recalled that he felt likehe was ’dragging a manhole cover’ during the road race. In October after returning from the Olympics,Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He had put off seeing a doctor, but when hebegan coughing up blood he knew he had to act. The news rocked Armstrong and his supportteam.

He was twenty-five, an elite athlete and hehad stage three testicular cancer that had spread to his brain, lungs, and abdomen. His chances of survival were estimated tobe below 50 percent. It looked pretty likely that he would neverrace again, despite recently signing a $2.5 million contract with Cofidis. His team’s lawyers decided that they wouldnot provide insurance cover during his treatment as the condition had not been advised at thetime of the signing of the contract. There were sponsors, however, who did notabandon Armstrong during his time of need. Oakley even offered for him to be coveredunder their health plan. Armstrong took on the cancer challenge withthe same fierce determination that had made him a world champion. He underwent a program of intense chemotherapytreatment. He sought out and began treatment with a verycaustic chemo cocktail known as VIP, which was less damaging on the lungs than conventionaltreatment. This choice probably saved his cycling career.

Throughout his chemo treatment, Armstrongcompeted sporadically. Understandably, he did not do well, but hewas keeping himself in the game. The final chemo treatment took place on December13th, 1996. In February 1997, his doctors were able toconfirm that his cancer was in full remission. Tour De France Armstrong returned to competitive cyclingat the beginning of 1998. His contract with Cofidis had been cancelledin 1997 and he had signed on with the US Postal Service cycling team. He moved to Europe with the team to trainfor the Tour De France. Armstrong was now being recognized as theposterchild for cancer survivor, receiving many awards and titles. Throughout 1998, he built successes one uponanother as he steadily improved his placings. That year he also married his fiancée, KristinRichard. The marriage would last five years and producethree children. Armstrong won his first Tour De France in1999. He won four stages and had learned to workwell with his team-mates. He finished the race 7 minutes and 37 secondsahead of the second-place finisher. In a post win interview, he proclaimed, ‘Ifyou get a second chance at life for something, go all the way’.

 In 2000, Armstrong came back to France determinedto defend his title. The race turned out to be a battle betweenhim and Jan Ullrich, who had competed the previous year. This rivalry was to continue for the nextfive years. Armstrong crossed the finish line six minutesahead of Ullrich to become a two-time champ. Armstrong dominated the cycling world in theearly 2000’s. He consecutive run of Tour De France victoriesstretched to an unprecedented seven in row, stretching from 1999 to 2005. Following his July 24th, 2005 win he announcedhis retirement from competitive cycling. Allegations of Cheating In the wake of his stunning 1999 Tour De Francevictory, there were allegations that Armstrong must have been involved in either drug takingor blood doping. In early 2000, under the auspices of the Nikecorporation, he created a documentary style advertisement entitled Body in order to answerthe detractors.

 The film focused on his steely will to winand showed footage of him undergoing drug tests. The voice over narration was done by Armstronghimself. At one point he says . . . Everybody wants to know what I’m on. What am I on? I’m on my bike, busting my ass six houra day. What are you on? When results came through that he had testedpositive for a minute amount of corticosteroid after the ’99 Tour De France, many peopledoubled down on their accusations. But the amounts in his body were so minutethat they were not enough to fail the test. Since then he has never failed a drug test. There has however been quite a lot of circumstantialevidence. In 2004, a book was published called L.A.Confidential which claimed that Armstrong had been using performance enhancing drugs. It quoted from Steve Swart, a former Motorolateam-mate who claimed that all the team members were using as far back as 1995. When allegations made in the book were reprintedin the British newspaper the The Sunday Times, Armstrong sued them, leading to an out ofcourt settlement. In June of 2012, the US Anti-Doping Agencybrought allegations against Armstrong of running a huge doping ring among his team mates duringhis competitive career.

 They were armed with testimony from a numberof former team mates. Their goal was to have him banned from anysport that followed the World Anti-Doping Code. Lance did not appeal the ban. Armstrong continued to vehemently deny theallegations of doping until 2013. Then, in a bombshell interview with OprahWinfrey, he admitted that he had used performance enhancing drugs for all of his Tour De Francewins. He claimed to have used erythropoietin andhuman growth hormone and to have engaged in blood doping. The reaction was one of outrage. Parties began lining up to sue Armstrong,including team mates he had called liars and parties that he had won libel suits against. The US Justice Department sued him for millionsof dollars that the US Postal Service had spent on sponsorship. Many of these suits are ongoing. The World Cycling Governing Body issued alifetime ban to Armstrong. He still competes in amateur events, however. Today, he owns a coffee shop in Austin, Texasand a bike shop called ‘Mellow Johnny’s’. Though he will never shake the reputationas the world’s greatest cycling cheat, he has rebuilt a life for himself that allowshim to indulge his cycling passion and his competitive nature as an amateur athlete. Livestrong Following his successful cancer treatment,Armstrong started the Lance Armstrong Foundation. It began with a fund raising race to raisemoney for cancer research. One of the most successful initiatives ofthe foundation was the production, in 2004, of a silicone band imprinted with the wordLIVESTRONG. Over 80 million of these bracelets have beensold worldwide.