Wrong. Sports serve as a metaphor for life. Players struggle through various forms of adversity in order to reach a final goal: to win the game. And that is where sports and life diverge. Sports wrap everything up in a nice little bow by producing a final score that proves who was the best on that day. Life is nothing like that. Life is messy. Life does not have perfectly defined winners and losers. And at this convergence of sports and life lies the conflict that is the Lance Armstrong saga.
I will readily admit that I am heavily biased in this conflict. Lung and liver cancer claimed my mothers life when I was 18. I remember the day that Peter Jennings lost his battle with lung cancer. She was heartbroken. He was one of the people she looked up to as a model for how to survive this wretched disease. The psychological battle against cancer is just as important as the physical battle and people like Peter Jennings, Michael Douglas, and Lance Armstrong are important role models for those fighting the disease.
Lance cheated. He forced others to lie and cheat on behalf of him and he should be punished for those immoral actions. But at the end of the day, who did he really offend? Cycling is not viewed through the same immaculate prism like baseball before the steroid era. It doesn't even have the reputation of the NFL where there is a silent acceptance that a larger group than we care to think about is probably cheating. No, cycling is THE preeminent sport for dopers and cheaters. And anyone who says this doesn't matter doesn't understand the impact of the culture surrounding us.
Most want to hold Lance Armstrong to an ideal that most of those same people would not be able to match if they were in his shoes. Doping just for the Tour de France alone is and has been an epidemic long before Lance showed up and started dominating. Cycling is a corrupt and broken sport filled to the brim with cheaters. This does not admonish Lance for his crimes, but it certainly makes them much more understandable.
The fact that Lance cheated does little to diminish the heroism of his story in my eyes. He was given a death sentence and he proceeded to work his way out of his hospital bed, up the French Alps, and down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees...seven times.
Whether he did this with the aid of performance enhancing drugs is of little concern to me. He stared death right in the face and proceeded to walk right past it en route to becoming one of the most inspirational stories of our modern era. Lance's courage, perseverance, and will to live serve as an example for all twelve and a half million people battling this horrible disease.
Cancer survivor should appear at the top of Lance Armstrong's obituary. His story of survival inspires others to fight for their lives and that is his enduring legacy. Yes, he cheated to win at sports. But he won the game of life far before he stuck a needle in his body, and that is what I will always remember him for. Thank you Lance, no matter how loud the noise gets, just know that you have helped many more people than you have hurt.
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