As the 100thTour de France kicked off last Saturday (June 30), its fallen prince was again in the media claiming his old throne.
In an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, American cyclist Lance Armstrong stated he still considers himself the record holder of Tour victories, despite having been stripped of his seven wins when he was caught doping.
Reports that Armstrong used illegal performance enhancers date back more than a decade. In 1999,stories hit the streets that Armstrong was taking corticosteroids.Cycling's golden boy vehemently denied the accusations, but the truth eventually surfaced last January, when the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency unearthed the gritty details in an investigation.
Before being banned from professional racing, the cyclist was reported to have a net worth of approximately $125 million. He was sponsored by the world's most famous brands - Nike, Trek and Oakley, just to name a few. So when his dirty secret aired, the fans that had helped fill Armstrong's bank account waited for an apology.
What they got was a lot of whining and a shrug of the shoulder with a bit of "it's part of the job." Days before the bikes hit the France's roads last weekend in the centennial race, Armstrong got out his violin again, this time telling French media it was impossible to win the Tour without doping.
Armstrong's attitude has the wheels in my head spinning. We all make bad decisions throughout our lives, but as our parents would say, it's how we deal with them that help define us.
American sprinter Marion Jones is not only a prime example of this; she's an inspiration. The track-and-field star lied to a grand jury about taking performance-enhancing drugs. When she later pleaded guilty and admitted lying, Jones was not only stripped of her five Olympic medals, she was handed a six-month prison sentence.
Out from behind the bars, she set about achieving a goal within her first passion, basketball. Her hard work paid off, landing her a jersey with the WNBA's Tulsa Shock.
Jones told media she wanted to show her sons that she had devoted herself to new goals following her faulty decisions - something they could be proud of.
"After you make poor choices, you don't just lay down and die," she said.
Taking a stumble, or in Armstrong's case a repeated judgment smash-up, doesn't mean you're out of the race. Beyond the innately good, the people we admire the most are the ones who fall hard, but after a bit of humble pie, dusted themselves off and with determination, get back on life's course.
