The Downfall of Lance Armstrong
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What led to Lance Armstrong's rise in professional cycling?
Remember when Lance Armstrong fooled the world into thinking he wasn't doing drugs when he was totally doing drugs? Did he ever go to prison for that? Well the story of course starts with Lance. And Lance is about 24 when all this begins and he's living in Texas. And see, Lance loves cycling. Like he's already competed in multiple national and international cycling tournaments and he's won a few of them. But here's the thing about him. He actually uses performance enhancing drugs to help him race better, which are obviously banned in professional cycling. But a lot of people don't know this about him. They think he's just an exceptional guy who's really good on a bicycle. But then one day in 1996, something terrible happens to him.
He gets diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer. And to make it worse, the cancer has already spread to his brain, his abdomen, and his lungs. And so he undergoes several surgeries and many rounds of chemotherapy. And because of that, he has to step away from cycling completely. And this really sucks for him. I mean, cycling is his whole life. But then, months go by, and it's now 1997. And something incredible happens. After all that surgery and chemotherapy, Lance officially beats cancer and is finally declared cancer-free. And of course, now Lance decides it's time to go back to professional cycling. So he joins the U.S. Postal Service pro cycling team and they give him a new contract. And just like that, Lance is officially back on the bike.
Now, normally you'd expect that after surviving cancer, after getting a second chance at life, basically, he would choose to stay away from drugs completely. But of course, that's not what he does. No, no, he's trying to win. He goes right back to using banned substances to help him compete better and win more often. And to his credit, it actually works. By 1999, just two years after beating cancer, he races and wins the Tour de France, which is considered the biggest competition in the sport of cycling. And after this victory, Lance blows the up and he becomes insanely popular with a ton of fans worldwide i mean people love his story he's a guy who had to quit because he got cancer and then he beat cancer and returned to the sport and he had one of the greatest comebacks ever which is just incredibly inspiring but see lance's story it's not over i mean he's not done yet
The next year, the year 2000, he competes in Tour de France again, and he wins again. Then in 2001, he wins a third time. And with each victory, he's slowly becoming one of the biggest sports icons in America. And this dude is suddenly everywhere. He's on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He's on the box of Wheaties. Here he is on a lunch pail. Here he is on the David Letterman show. Here he is with the president during this time, Bill Clinton. He even starts dating singer Sheryl Crow.
How did Lance Armstrong's cancer diagnosis impact his cycling career?
He also secures massive sponsorship deals, including a sponsorship from Nike worth $40 million. Damn. And during this rise, the cancer foundation he launched years before also starts getting a lot of publicity. The foundation is actually called Livestrong. You might remember when those Livestrong bracelets were popular back in the day. So Lance is on top of the world at this point. But what the public doesn't know is that behind the scenes, he's still using performance enhancing drugs to boost his cycling game. And the drug testing process, it just isn't that advanced during this time. Plus, Lance has all kinds of ways to manipulate the results of these tests. So the governing bodies are just completely fooled.
Now, here's where he finally starts to screw up. As time goes on, Lance keeps winning. Big races, small races, and the more he wins, the more people start to get suspicious. Like, how could a man go through multiple rounds of chemotherapy and then go on to win the Tour de France multiple times in a row? It just doesn't make sense. And journalists and other people in the business, they start accusing him of doping. But of course, Lance denies everything.
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