[credit: Steve Breen, San Diego Union-Tribune]
Lance Armstrong won an unprecedented seven Tour De France races, famous for their grueling test of human endurance. It was inevitable that reasonable people including US Person would wonder if Armstrong was genetically well endowed or using chemical assistance to achieve such an incredible feat of cycling, a sport for which Americans had no previous international reputation. When Armstrong announced this week he would end his decade long fight against allegations of doping, it was tantamount to a confession of guilt. The US Anti-Doping Agency said Thursday night it would strip the cyclist of his titles. Armstrong, now retired, called the USADA investigation an "unconstitutional witch hunt" justifying himself with hundreds of drug tests passed while winning the cycling titles. Nevertheless, his status as a living legend of cycling has been tarnished for good by the label "drug cheat". The agency's allegations are based on the admissions of former US Postal Service team mate Floyd Landis whose e-mails to a USA Cycling official detailed a complex doping program within the team. Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour title after a positive drug test. According to investigators ten former Armstrong teammates were ready to testify against him. What may be properly inferred from the lack of positives in Armstrong's case is a sophisticated blood doping scheme that ran ahead of available testing protocols used by race officials. The lead ran out in 2006 when Landis was caught. Armstrong will ignominiously join other sport heros, baseball's Pete Rose, track's Marion Jones, in a life long ban from the sports which made them rich and famous.Here is a humous look at what sports organizers will contend with in the near future, because as you know now, winning is everything in the big time:
[credit: Ingrid Rice]
Wackeydoodle sez: I thought them mermaids only had one tail!