Yesterday, Lance Armstrong was formally stripped of all seven of his Tour De France wins, capping off a tumultuous period in his life that spanned since his retirement from cycling.
The action came along with a lifelong ban on Armstrong from competitive cycling by the sports governing body, the UCI. Without waiting for an admission of guilt, officials have decided to strip him of his guilt based on accusations that he knowingly and repeatedly took performance enhancing drugs, or PED's, during his career.
This news is very disturbing to many fans of cycling, casual and dedicated alike. Armstrong was a popular figure, a man you couldn't root against, even if you weren't necessarily rooting for him. He earned renown for his fight against testicular cancer and his charity work through his Livestrong Foundation. He was a gracious winner and a world class athlete, and yet for several months has faced intense and prolonged attacks from those who seek to take it away from him.
It would be one thing if Lance was on an island, standing alone as the only professional athlete who took measure to distance himself from the competition, but he is not. His own sport is rife with it, having disqualified at least one, oftentimes more riders every year since the early 2000's for doping. Other sports, such as the NFL, boxing and Major League Baseball have also seen this trend in their own ranks.
Most of the time, these infractions are for performance enhancing drugs of some sort. Human Growth Hormone (HGH), is frequently used to add muscle mass and repair damage to the body. These, combined with other steroids, give athletes an unfair advantage over others and taint the image of the professional leagues. Sometimes, however, the drug suspensions are for drugs typically classified as "recreational".
While not having any substantial impact on the play of other athletes, nor giving the athletes who take them any real advantage, recreational drugs are still not in the best interest of the leagues and therefore their use must be treated as such. Athletes who cannot refrain from recreational drug use create a bad example of inability to follow the rules of the league.
While it may seem prudent to point fingers, direct the blame at individuals or groups that might seem responsible, it is becomingly increasingly obvious that this is a society wide problem, one that has manifested itself slowly over time. In this day and age, we as a society project this idea into our athletes from a very young age that they must push harder than everyone else to succeed, that they must always strive to be the biggest, the fastest, the strongest. When they get older, these kids try for that very goal, only to eventually reach the obvious physical limitations that hinder their progress. So then what? Performance enhancing drugs come into play, allowing athletes to train harder and longer, getting bigger than they have ever thought possible. Driven to be the best, and unwilling to fail, athletes can spiral into darker realms of life, where they tread into illegal and unethical behaviors.
If this seems a bit like a slippery slope argument, then it is only meant to accentuate what has become a very real issue in the world of sport. For better or for worse, many young kids idolize athletes, which poses the obvious dilemna of what we as a society want our kids to learn from their idols. Three years ago, most parents would be ecstatic to learn that their children idolized Lance Armstrong. Today, that very child would be idolizing someone who is widely regarded as a cheater because of his alleged steroid use.
If this particular subject interests you, or you love a good documentary, I would strongly suggest Bigger Faster, Stronger by Chris Bell. It is a great piece that strongly alludes to steroid use in America through the vantage point of one family of boys. In that film you will see firsthand the influence that athletes have on young children in our society. Heroes such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Hulk Hogan have joined hundreds of other athletes in shamefully, sullenly, tearfully admitting their involvement with steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. How many more need to be caught, tried and punished before we all acknowledge this problem and do something effective to stop it?
