Lance
Armstrong was an icon, a source of both inspiration and hope. His story,
recovering from a cancer and breaking world cycling records, completely
captured me, as did to millions around the world. Lance Armstrong is a story of
triumph over adversity. However, this also has made the lies all more disappointing.
On the last post you were discussing whether people should be given a second chance, right? Well, do
you believe Armstrong deserves a second chance to redeem himself? Hasn’t he
already paid for his errors? Does he deserve to be crucified this way?
Note: Armstrong has
been banned from professional cycling for life and stripped of his seven tours. Nike has
broken his contract. He has lost millions. He has resigned as chairman of Cancer
Foundation…
Lance Armstrong has been an icon for many people as Alex said and has done amazing things.
ReplyDeleteFrom my point of view I think that everybody makes mistakes in some point of their life, one's are bigger than others ,but everyone does. Lance in this case wanted to achieve more fame and become better in cycling and commited the error of doping. I agree with Alex up to a point, everyone deserves a second opportunity and I defend that Armstrong has already paid for his errors. He has been taken all his records and he shouldn't be treated with despise because although doping helped him to improve, it doesn't mean it all. I'm absolutely against doping but what I mean is that he has also been hours training and suffering so there's effort behind all, not everyone is capable of achieving his records with doping or without.
I think that many people talk without even knowing because practicing sports at a competition level is very hard, you train hours and hours and you not always end up with the mark you wanted and so you have a great desire to improve. In that case athletes should train more or realize that is their limit but Armstrong felt it was not enough and so commited the error of doping. I defend that always we should think why someone might have done something wrong and try to understand it although we are against it. Therefore analysing the situation I understand why he might have done it and that's the reason why I defend he has paid enough for it. Obviously he had to be taken all the tours and contracts because as an athlete he can't do that because is so unfair for the other athletes... Also because is like betraying all the people that have always supported you.
However, as I had already said he has put also a lot of effort on it so the case should be forgotten because he's not the only one and, as we are humans, we make mistakes.
Gemma, I totally agree with what you have just said. Although I am against doping, as is the vast majority of society, I don’t believe he deserves to be punished as the worst sport criminal. He has already been stripped of all dignity and prizes, some don’t even allow him to breathe. The only thing that is missing is to take him to the death row…
ReplyDeleteThe reason for which I “defend” him is because he is a victim. Yes, a victim of the corrupt system that has existed for too long in the cycling world. The corrupt cannot be corrupted. And since long, the cycling world has lived under a spiral of corruption and lies. He is a victim of a system that required doping. Armstrong doped, but he is by no means the only one. Believe me when I say this, I know it at first hand. My grandfather, now 85 and a professional cycler, has told me such stories about Jesús Manzano, Dr.Ferrari...
In conclusion, Armstrong is no guiltier than anyone else. He is guilty, there’s no denying that. But he is not the only cheater; hence it is not the problem neither of a man nor his team. It is a much wider problem. This is why the public lynching of a man will not solve the problem.
Besides, how many lives have Armstrong’s foundation saved? Doesn’t anybody value that? Moreover, he has publically confessed his crime. This is something for which he should be praised for. I totally agree that he should be deprived from all sporting merits; however, what’s being done is certainly too much. Not only it is affecting him but also his family. This is why I strongly defend that he should be given a second chance to at least redeem himself.
It´s a fact that Lance Armstrong gained all his seven ``tours´´ by doping with EPO, as he confessed in an interview with Ophra Winfrey.
ReplyDeleteHe has already been stripped of his Tour de France titles and banned from competing in cycling and triathlons. I think this is a correct punishment because I find unfair for other athletes that were obeying the rules to know that a man that has cheated continues having this titles.
To sum up, he has lost his key sponsors and chairmanship of the organization he once headed as an icon, the Livestrong Foundation. This foundation fights against cancer and tries to help patients with cancer and their families. I find this unfair because his personal achievements in which he has been involved over the last few years has anything to do with a mistake that he committed in the past.
I think he mustn’t get another opportunity to be a cyclist because while he won those races cheating, illusions of other clean cyclists were being vanished. As Gemma said, he did a lot of training and suffering in his career as a cyclist; if had been a clean athlete he would deserve to still be recognized, but he needs to have consequences for what he did. Furthermore, I think this should be used as a model to other sports figures that continue doping or taking drugs nowadays, to remind them that to act against the law can have negative consequences in a future.
I am concerned about the fact that every human can make an error, but he continued taking drugs for many years, so if he really felt guilty about what he was doing, he would had stopped doing it before winning all those tittles.