Fish for Friday

Limerick of the Week:

What's this affair all about—the years of doping,
Or how Lance and everyone else went on hoping
    That lies would stay sold,
    The records all hold,
And no one be embarrassed to've been caught nopeing?

Not only in the "Lance Armstrong affair," but in all of the sports world I feel that "big money" has ruined many men, many marriages, and therefore many families. It gives them a feeling of power that they can get away with anything, and many of them do. I see no way to turn back the clock to make sports about sports instead of the hero worship it has become. Very sad for all!

The harm Lance Armstrong has done to his son and all the other young people who looked up to him is devastating. Many will never forget how easily Lance lied, even sued and won. The lesson? Lie with a straight face, become indignant, and one may get away with the deception. Trust? Does it really exist? Probably not.

I felt so stupid. Having believed in him sooo long—"Well, he has been sick and had CANCER and almost died, and had taken all those drugs for that, he WOULDN'T risk taking some weird stuff...just to win"—and why did I not believe all the others who said they had seen him, and why did I think that he was being hounded by the [don't know the right name of the associations/olympics groups etc.] that were not accepting his answers. I usually suspect that where an agency is continually pushing,...there is fire. Why did I not see the extreme ego on view...in plain sight?

I recall that people were always highly suspicious that Lance Armstrong was doping, as testicular cancer can be a side effect. I don't know whether he has admitted that his doping preceded his cancer; I didn't actually listen to or watch the interview. Just heard some snippets on the radio where he seemed very arrogant and unremorseful. I am sure there are a lot of people feeling very smug to see him fall after all his many, many, many years of denying doping and taking the credit for being naturally incredibly gifted. Maybe if he had not been so greedy he would have taken a handful of wins and retired, instead of coming back again and again to the point he had to be either superhuman or on drugs. Just shows what an arrogant asshole he was. And now his excuse is, "Everyone was doing it." Pathetic.

Given that Lance was a hero for many amateur athletes, I personally find his lies to be absolutely abhorrent. Do not understand the man's feelings that he was above scrutiny of other athletes. Total disappointment.

The hypocrisy of everyone jumping on Lance Armstrong is absurd. After 100 years of the Tour de France, bicyclists suddenly started roaring up mountains like they were on motorcycles, and no one thought something illegal might be going on? It is the same as baseball during the steroid era. Baseballs suddenly start flying out of ball parks in record numbers and going distances that used to require gunpowder, and no one had a clue? Something like 21 out of 23 riders who have been on the top-three podium with Armstrong at the Tour de France have been sanctioned for doping—how could any sane person believe the rider winning seven races in a row was the only one not cheating?

Commentators and sports show callers claim that what most upsets them is how mean Armstrong was to people who dared accuse him. Bull. What upsets them is they were dumb enough to make a hero of a guy who could pedal a bike really fast, just as they were dumb enough to make heroes of baseball players inexplicably playing better in their late 30s than in their mid 20s, and they again paid a price for being so ridiculously gullible.
    The venom being spit at Armstrong isn’t about making a guy look in the mirror and be honest with himself about cheating. The uproar is because millions of people desperate for heroes because they are too lazy to create their own heroic lives, don’t want to look in the mirror and admit they got exactly what they deserved.

Tour DuPont, Richmond 1994

Years ago, I was “official photographer” for a couple of stages of the Tour DuPont, back when it was supposedly going to become the American equivalent of Tour De France—which it did, sort of, if only very briefly. Armstrong was basically an unknown to the public back then but was already known to the media as, to say this politely, a jerk. I was a somewhat decent cyclist and regionally known as a mountain bike racer, so the tour organizers made a point to “buddy up” Armstrong and myself. Road cyclists in general tend to be prima donnas, and the more accomplished racers can be over-the-top divas, and Armstrong more than fulfilled the stereotype. (One of the great joys of racing mountain bikes, by the way, was that back then we generally didn’t have to put up with road cyclists or their attitude.) The then nowhere-near-famous Armstrong was the worst jerk I had to deal with until I later unfortunately crossed paths with young Tony Stewart and about-to-retire Darrell Waltrip while photographing for a couple of NASCAR teams.
    Knowing Armstrong when he was barely 20, I’m not surprised he succeeded, or that he cheated to succeed. All he seemed to care about was winning, and that was before he nearly died from cancer and came back really focused. He didn’t ask to be made a role model, gullible people made him one. All he asked for was a chance to win. And he won fair and square playing by the same corrupt tactics that ruled the sport then and may very well rule it forever. Anytime people can earn embarrassing amounts of money, and be worshiped by millions of misguided people, for excelling at a sport originally intended for children’s entertainment, why wouldn’t they cheat to succeed?

It would be good if we could spend less time in vicarious involvement in one person's drug use and improving Oprah's income, and more time and energy on dealing with issues that actually affect the future of this nation—like the poor quality of education, the excess cost of college, and the need to "skill educate" those who finished college with no marketable skills.

Please comment