Lance Armstrong admits to cheating.

he said:
In a statement sent to the AP, Armstrong said: “Today I turn the page. I will no longer address this issue, regardless of the circumstances. I will commit myself to the work I began before ever winning a single Tour de France title: serving people and families affected by cancer, especially those in underserved communities.”

Did he cheat? I don't know. Did he ADMIT TO CHEATING? I've read nothing that suggests he has.

I don't know if he has or not, but that doesn't mean he did. A lot of people just don't want to argue. He seems like he has other things that are more important to him. He may not feel he has anything to prove to anyone, only to himself.

But who knows.

If he did not cheat and is just giving up on the issue, he lacks principle. I would have more respect for him if he came out and admitted to cheating, if that is the case. I tend to believe it is. However, I cannot fault a cancer survivor with one testicle trying to regain a competitive edge in one of the most grueling endurance races in the world.

If he cheated, how much did it really help him? Who is to say? His dominance could not all be attributed to the alleged doping, in my opinion.

Again: HE HAS NOT ADMITTED TO CHEATING

Did he? Perhaps. Will he? Who knows. Meanwhile: Your topic heading is false.
In fact, he's done the OPPOSITE of admitting to cheating.

Interesting editorial from velo news:

http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/08/news/commentary-armstrong-the-martyr-changes-the-conversation-by-refusing-arbitration_235712

^ Agreed.

yeah i definitely should have headed this wrong but it seems you cant edit the title.

but any reasonable person can see he's guilty of cheating. mountains of evidence and now he's not even going to fight it.

very disappoinnting. what will all the people he inspired think?

All the people he inspired will think the same thing they think when another sports idol gets exposed- "I probably shouldn't put so much faith in someone that I barely know who gets paid to do what kids do for free." I was a big Mark McGwire fan when I was a kid, but was I shocked when he was accused of steroid use (which he subsequently admitted)? No. You know why? Because he was built like a pro wrestler. In my childhood room, I had 3 posters- McGwire, Darryl Strawberry and Lawrence Taylor. Was I shocked when Darryl and LT admitted drug use? No. I was thankful for the production they brought to their respective teams.

What I'm trying to say is that this story will be hued according to your own personal prism. You can look at Armstrong as a cheat, which he more than likely is, and feel that you were misled into feeling empathy for him and being inspired by him and wearing yellow bracelets... OR... you can look at him as a cheat who brought increased awareness to cancer and raised over $500 million for cancer research, which in turn helped save lives. Yeah, he's a prick. And yeah, he's a really good guy (maybe to make up for being a prick). Nobody is just one thing- it's the duality of man- 2 sides of the same coin. In many ways, it's not clothes or money but contradictions that makes the man. People are fallible (well, people not named Derek Jeter, who may very well be the 37th reincarnation of Buddha), which is why many people look to religion, because only god is infallible, or so I've been told. Or if you're like me, you place no faith in man or spirit, still try to do more right than wrong, and enjoy sports for what they are- games. Games being played by men/women in suspended adolescence/arrested development.

Thank you for your time.

That's sad but if he was guilty, I bet he will feel much better about admitting it. I can't imagine being in his shoes though and won't even try. I think being famous would be one of the hardest things in the world.

denise

wow! really disappointing. he was so smug and swore up and down about his innocence.

technically he's "dropping the fight"

"Details are still trickling in at this moment, but the Associated Press is reporting that seven-time Tour de France-winning cyclist Lance Armstrong has dropped his fight against doping charges leveled at him by the US Anti-Doping Agency. This means that he likely will be, as the Daily News puts it so succinctly, "stripped of Tour de France titles and banned for life." Specifically, he'll be stripped of all titles and accomplishments going back to August 1, 1998, including a bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics."

http://deadspin.com/5937480/lance-armstrong-drops-fight-against-doping-charges-will-likely-be-stripped-of-tour-titles-and-banned-for-life

Saying he's "Stripped of His Titles" is a better headline than "Armstrong was Stripped of His Titles by One of Several Organizations that Proclaims to Be the End All in Cycling"

I'm actually watching SportsCenter at the moment.

Kind of hypocrite society we live in. Everybody in sports cheats literally. Those scumbags in the government should clean their freaking closets before trying to clean up somebody else's *kitten*. Same people he raced with cheated too and lost to him. Nothing ever changes with sports in this era or the next. Everyone will be cheat but I guess you are only a cheater when you are caught.

yeah i definitely should have headed this wrong but it seems you cant edit the title.

but any reasonable person can see he's guilty of cheating. mountains of evidence and now he's not even going to fight it.

very disappoinnting. what will all the people he inspired think?

mountains of evidence?

All the articles I've been reading (multiple sources) say he's been tested CLEAN 100s of times...so...who has this evidence?

I don't know him personally and am not involved in the cycling world; I can't speculate on whether he did or didn't.

But not fighting doesn't automatically = guilt.

^^^ This. I was reading an article the other day that, in a nuthell, said the US courts were staying out of it since it's an international sport that should be dealt w/by it's international bodies, but that the US felt the org was overreaching and did not have the evidence to support their accusations. Doesn't sound like mountains of evidence to me...

He was tested after every race. He always tested clean. The "Anti's" don't believe the tests? Sounds like a witch hunt to me. Where is the evidence? Present it. Get it over with. Shouldn't take forever. He has another life now and wants to get on with it. He knows he won the races and didn't or did use drugs. There are more important battles to fight these days.

Reading comprehension is key.

Two reasons I could see him dropping this fight...

1. He suspected he could not win the fight... either due to guilt OR strong circumstantial evidence...

or

2. He is TIRED of the fight and is just ready to move on.

This is America. He is innocent until PROVEN guilty. I understand the guilty by default thought process but I also understand that we all have to pick our battles. At the end of this day... we still know nothing...