"Lance Armstrong through the years: Deny, deny, deny"

From the Los Angeles Times and Tampa Bay Times

Review by Eric Stodd in SRM 334 (section 2)

Lance Armstrong very well could have been one of the greatest athletes to ever live, and over the past few years his career has turned into a stream of lies and deceit. He won, a record, seven straight Tour de France titles while racing for the United States Postal Service Team, which was unheard of. In the sports world today, the mass audience will undoubtedly question anyone who completes a feat of this magnitude. The L.A. Times article we are focusing on quotes Armstrong’s perception of winning just his first title, “This is a new guy in the tour. It can’t be. He must be doped.” When it comes to a sport like cycling, we have now found out that almost half the competitors were doping up in some way, shape, or form.

This article pertains directly to this class in many ways, because the heart of this story is based around media relations. The media, teammates, and the USADA had all come after Armstrong and were searching for the truth. From the beginning, Lance kept with his “deny, deny, deny” way of handling things. This would lead him into the deepest hole I have ever seen an athlete delve into, and he probably will not climb out of it. Armstrong destroyed journalists’ and teammates’ careers by suing them for claiming he used PED’s. In the end, after the lawsuits and his realization of everyone knowing the truth he decided to finally stop lying. It is rather jaw dropping now that he would finally come out with the truth after he fought to destroy his accusers’ lives. Lance Armstrong’s career will surely become one of the most stained and diminished in sports history.

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Review by Cara Yaworske in SRM 334 (section 2)

For this current event assignment, we decided to discuss the Lance Armstrong scandal. 

As everyone knows, Armstrong won the Tour de France seven consecutive times after being diagnosed with cancer. With many athletes who have such success, there are doping allegations, which was definitely the case for Armstrong. Even though this story can be talked about for days, we are focusing on one aspect: his denial through the years.

One of the articles we used discusses all of Lance Armstrong’s public denials. There were many press conferences, interviews, and even books asking if he has doped. These accusations began in the 1990’s and he denied every single one, including in his “nonfiction” memoir. The second article is about every person Armstrong sued. He sued people such as book reviewers, his masseuse, and previous employees. He went to the extremes to ruin people’s jobs and lives to deny what is now known to be true.

The reason this is such a big deal is because Armstrong went more than ten years denying doping and then all of a sudden he decides to come out with a public apology on Oprah. Nobody really knows the reasoning behind his sudden admittance, but it has caused hatred towards him and the causes he supports. Do these people accept his apology? I know I am very curious to find out.

Doping is a very important topic in sports because it’s illegal and unfair, and yet so many athletes do it, and eventually, get caught. So what can be done to avoid this from happening? Drug testing clearly is not cutting it, because Armstrong still managed to pass every test. This story is related to our class in particular because it’s been in the media for years. First, the media accused him of possible doping, and now it is talking about his public admittance. Doping and how the media reacts to it is an issue that definitely needs to be fixed.