Imagine if the idol you had supported and followed for over
half your life turned out to be lie. For me that nightmare has been unfolding
watching one of my heroes, Lance Armstrong’s reputation be destroyed in front
of the worlds media. This is a difficult post for me to write mainly because a
part of me is still finding it hard to accept what’s happened. For a man who
was an example of triumph over adversity he is now nothing more than a fallen
idol.
I have virtually worshiped Lance since I was a little girl, at the time I was amazed at how one man could go up against some of the tallest mountains in Europe for hours on end while fighting against some of the best cyclists on the planet. But not just that I admired him for his cancer fight and his ability to come back from the brink. When I met Lance at Adelaide’s Tour Down Under back in 2009 he gave me one of his yellow “Livestrong” bands and I have not taken it off since that day. I still remember my first reaction when I met him, I was simply in awe. I never thought that I would ever meet someone with Lance’s reputation in my home town.
His work with Livestrong was legendary, and he claimed it was one of the main reasons that he came back out of retirement. The black & yellow wording is permanently intertwined with Lance and for those now associated with the charity it is now a poisoned chalice. As I write this news reports are coming through that Lance has stepped down as chairman, but it doesn’t matter. There isn’t a person out there who doesn’t know Lance created LiveStrong, he might not be a part of the charity anymore but his echo still remains.
It’s still hard thinking back to the mass hysteria that Lance’s arrival caused in Adelaide back in 2009. The amount of people that were there waiting with me to meet him, holding everything from yellow jerseys to photos. I wonder if Lance came back to Adelaide now how many of those same people would be there to meet him.
Cycling had always been a tarnished sport, there isn’t a year that goes by where you don’t hear of someone testing positive to something but it always had seemed Lance was the shining light amongst a sea of controversy. The amount of times over the years he has said no to drugs or don’t do drugs seems like a joke now, but at the time I loved him for it. With what has happened in recent weeks it now makes it harder than ever to be able to sit there and enjoy cycling without that nagging feeling that not everyone who is racing is clean.
Of course drugs will always be around sport but this incident proves that nobody is safe and to always expect the unexpected: even your idol that you have supported no matter what could be the cheat that you so despise.
I have virtually worshiped Lance since I was a little girl, at the time I was amazed at how one man could go up against some of the tallest mountains in Europe for hours on end while fighting against some of the best cyclists on the planet. But not just that I admired him for his cancer fight and his ability to come back from the brink. When I met Lance at Adelaide’s Tour Down Under back in 2009 he gave me one of his yellow “Livestrong” bands and I have not taken it off since that day. I still remember my first reaction when I met him, I was simply in awe. I never thought that I would ever meet someone with Lance’s reputation in my home town.
His work with Livestrong was legendary, and he claimed it was one of the main reasons that he came back out of retirement. The black & yellow wording is permanently intertwined with Lance and for those now associated with the charity it is now a poisoned chalice. As I write this news reports are coming through that Lance has stepped down as chairman, but it doesn’t matter. There isn’t a person out there who doesn’t know Lance created LiveStrong, he might not be a part of the charity anymore but his echo still remains.
It’s still hard thinking back to the mass hysteria that Lance’s arrival caused in Adelaide back in 2009. The amount of people that were there waiting with me to meet him, holding everything from yellow jerseys to photos. I wonder if Lance came back to Adelaide now how many of those same people would be there to meet him.
Cycling had always been a tarnished sport, there isn’t a year that goes by where you don’t hear of someone testing positive to something but it always had seemed Lance was the shining light amongst a sea of controversy. The amount of times over the years he has said no to drugs or don’t do drugs seems like a joke now, but at the time I loved him for it. With what has happened in recent weeks it now makes it harder than ever to be able to sit there and enjoy cycling without that nagging feeling that not everyone who is racing is clean.
Of course drugs will always be around sport but this incident proves that nobody is safe and to always expect the unexpected: even your idol that you have supported no matter what could be the cheat that you so despise.
No comments:
Post a Comment