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Lance Armstrong part of cycling's 'most successful doping program,' USADA says
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency says it will release Wednesday more than 1,000 pages of evidence detailing the involvement of cyclist Lance Armstrong in what the agency calls "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."
Armstrong, who won an unprecedented seven Tour de France titles, announced in August that he would no longer fight doping charges that the USADA brought against him earlier in the year. The famed cyclist's decision prompted the USADA to ban the 40-year-old athlete from competition and strip him of his wins dating to 1998, though there were questions of whether the organization had the authority to take such action.
The USADA filed doping charges against Armstrong in June. Armstrong retired from professional cycling in February 2011, though he continued to compete in triathlon events.
The USADA, a quasi-government agency recognized as the official anti-doping agency for Olympic, Pan American and Paralympic sports in the United States, accused Armstrong of using, possessing, trafficking and giving to others performance-enhancing drugs, as well as covering up doping violations.
Armstrong's attorney blasted the accusations as "wrong" and "baseless," much like Armstrong has vehemently denied other such claims in the past.
Armstrong, when he announced in August that he wouldn't fight the charges, said there was "zero physical evidence" to support the USADA's claims, and that he was "finished with this nonsense" of fighting charges after fighting against such allegations for years.
"The only physical evidence there is the hundreds of controls I have passed with flying colors," Armstrong said in August. "I made myself available around the clock and around the world. In-competition. Out of competition. Blood. Urine. Whatever they asked for I provided. What is the point of all this testing if, in the end, USADA will not stand by it?"
On Wednesday, Armstrong's teammate George Hincape admitted he used banned substances.
"It is extremely difficult today to acknowledge that during a part of my career I used banned substances," Hincape said in a statement. "Early in my professional career, it became clear to me that, given the widespread use of performance enhancing drugs by cyclists at the top of the profession, it was not possible to compete at the highest level without them. I deeply regret that choice and sincerely apologize to my family, teammates and fans."
August 26, 2012: Armstrong: 'I'm more at ease now than I have been in 10 years'
August 24, 2012: Armstrong's statement about ending fight against charges
August 24, 2012: Armstrong's cancer foundation still strong
Does this accusation by the The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency change your feelings about Armstrong? Share your reaction in the comments below.
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What is up with all the weird capitalization ?? Distracts from what you are writing.. be a bit more conscious please...
JMB, go grade english papers and get off the net
For sure that doesnt bother me. It shouldnt bother you either. And NOBODY is screaming here. All is silent.
Does anyone believe that any of the cyclist are clean because I don't. If you strip one, strip all.
If riding a bike is a sport; so is eating a sandwich.
Eating Krystal burgers is a sport....
So I'm confused. Have the USADS's doping test been flawed forever and we have no idea who doped and who didn't? Have those test been fixed so we can know who's doping???
You, sir, hit the point directly. If the tests didn't identify doping, how did they find it? If they found it later, why didn't they find it right away? How flawed is the system if they can go back 16 years and say, "he cheated" yet his tests came back clean every time?
Any "cycling fan" knows that Armstrong's unblemished testing record is, itself, up for debate.
In any case, George Hincapie never failed a drug test, either.
Seems to me the only "proof" the USADA has is sworn testimony disgruntled and/or disgraced former team members, and a bunch of ancillary information that doesn't really prove anything without a relying completely on conjecture and innuendo.
700 drug tests and they can't find one ... NOT ONE ... with any type of scientific evidence (notice the word "evidence" and not proof) that Lance Armstrong had any banned substances in his system.
It doesn't matter if you can get a thousand people to say they saw him taking steroids ... it's complete hearsay without any PHYSICAL EVIDENCE to back up the claim, and they don't have that ...
It's completely disgusting the USADA can operate this way ... but, then again, they don't answer to anyone, and their funding is directly tied to their ability to tie athletes to drug use.
Wait until the papers get release, 1,000 of them.ONe or two team members laying down all the dirty now I can understand but all of them? Only 3 folks had won 5 TdeFrance between 100 yrs yet Lance, after cancer, came and won 7?
Most likely YES he cheated just like all his teammates.
With all due respect, you don't know the meaning of the word "hearsay." If I watch you smother your sister with a pillow and report it to the police, that's not "hearsay." That's providing eyewitness testimony of you committing a murder, and it's a valuable piece of evidence.
You also don't seem to have even a rudimentary grasp of the basic nature of the investigative process, and the generally accepted value of eyewitness testimony in this or many other contexts, including criminal investigation.
I'd be willing to give any man the benefit of the doubt if one or two former friends or professional rivals made a slanderous allegation about him, but to characterize the steady stream of teammates, rivals, colleagues and friends who have done so regarding Armstrong – in many cases, implicating themselves, as well, and in several cases, doing so despite a lack of evidence against them (such as Hincapie), a plausibility tipping point is reached.
You're being naive.
How many ALTHETES got caught DOPING and never went to JAIL?
ZERO... GO AWAY GOVERNMENT and GOP.... People know this for years. They have seen Berry Bonds, McGwire, etc.
GO AWAY GOVERNMENT!!! you help the ATHLETES get richer!!!
GO AWAY!!! YOU ARE HELPLESS. GO AWAY.... GO AWAY!!!..
I totally agree. How about taking all the earned $$ away too. Most of those who came on 2nd never got any glory, fame or richness. That was taken away from them. Look at Agassi, he did drugs and admitted yet after all these years he made lots of $$$$ and still gets more famous. SO I would place them in jail and take their trophies and $$$ too and give it to those who came 2nd and 3rd. .
We can tell how smart our drug snoopers are by seeing the people die from drugs made right here in the good ole USA. Can't even get a shot for backpain now in safety.
He has passed EVERY SINGLE test ever given to him. Some low estimates are around 300 different test at different times, others estimate it at over 500. Leave the guy alone!
One good thing is Mitt will end the funding to this agency on day ONE.
Wrong there Obama will fund it at no charge to them, just the tax payers...leave Armstrong alone, go after people who lie in government
msmith Lance lied and cheated to the WORLD!!
Not defending him cause I never kept up with his sport. Or him..
But I do know he had testicular cancer.. Is it not possible that some of his treatments could leave a false positive effect?
Mary, that's been discussed and examined quite carefully from a scientific perspective (he's hardly the only athlete in the drug-testing era to take medications related to cancer treatment and hormone therapy), and even Armstrong's team doesn't suggest that explains the controversy. Really, the most damning evidence against Lance is that countless close colleagues, teammates, and friends have 'fessed up over the years, admitting to doping themselves, and doping with Armstrong. Cancer treatment doesn't account for that.
Who cares! He doesn't compete anymore!
Well I think he does.. If you won a lot of awards and then was called a cheater and suddenly you actually won nothing and people that used to admire you now think you are shameful..
I think of course YOU would care.
And pepple that were inspired by him.. People who are part of the sport.. And of course the guys that came in second~!!:)
he competes in triathlons
Karl lets say your son came on second all those yrs yet Lance got the glory, fame and $$$. Now your son is teaching at a small school that nobody ever heard of or out of work. How would you feel then knowing that a cheater took away all of that from your boy? Lance and many others did that to so many athletes yet they got away , kept the glory, trophy and all the $$$$.
My father said to me that the ONLY thing that cannot be taken away from a person is his integrity, his word as a gentleman. If a man gave you his word, you knew you could believe him. If there was a code of ethics, you would assume it was followed. The fact that around me is greed and dishonor is against everything I ever believed in. How can you be happy about your hero winning when he cheated others in the race? How can you be happy you got the job if you lied to get it? How can you be happy spending money you stole from someone else?
If my father were still alive I would tell him that today it would be easier believing in fairies and unicorns.
Like Rodney Dangerfield, Lance can't get no respect. I say it was a different world then, and most athletes doped. He did what they all did, and within that universe, he was the best. Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to doping to build his body. Did they take his championship belts away? NO. Put an asterisk next to these guys names. They still did better than everyone else, but it should be noted it was with a little help from their friends.
Whatever Russ,he did it just a few years ago, sheesh
With all of this "evidence" why the heck did they wait YEARS to do anything? Where is the actual evidence, I see no paperwork, details of investigation? NO PROOF revealed here. This is the Dog chasing it's tail.
ADIOs.As slow as this site has gotten it must be on something.