So word comes now that All-American boy, Tour de France icon, and cancer survivor is now considering whether to admit to doping. This is, of course, pretty much akin to a husband thinking about possibly admitting to an affair–sometime after the judge signs off on the divorce papers.
So, after years and years of such adamant denial, after hundreds (if not thousands) of statements made in great passion that he did not have intravenous relations with that syringe, it appears that Lance is thinking of changing his position to one of, “well, yes, I did inject, but I did not inhale, and I did not like it.”
It all might make one wonder what happened to change his thinking–did Lance get hit with a pang of regret? Did he decide he wanted to show kids what the right thing to do was?
No. Of course not.
Instead Lance is apparently thinking that if he admits doping he will be able to participate in other events.
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At the end of the day, Armstrong’s case is a tough one. It’s a microcosm of the modern sports world and all of its participants. I don’t know where to fall on the spectrum, really. I don’t like the idea of performance enhancing drugs, but I’m competitive enough to understand the idea of what it means to be great, to be driven to be exceptional. And I understand the fact that there are people who would be perfectly willing to give away years of their life at the end in order to be exceptional in the middle.
I get that all.
The problem here, though, is not the act itself–not that he wanted to be exceptional. It’s that he cheated, he broke rules under the table, and it’s the fact of Lance Armstrong’s long, long record of vehement denials that he was not a crook. But the fact is, just as in the case of pretty much every high-profile denial these days, is that yes, it appears he really was a crook.
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Sigh.