Why, Mr. Armstrong, why?

Lance by Plastic JesusFor the past year the sports world has been shaken up by a very sad story: the story of the fall from grace of Lance Armstrong – a cyclist, who won the premier event of the sport, the Tour de France, a record seven times. Armstrong is also known for overcoming cancer and for his charitable work – The Lance Armstrong Foundation with its famous “live strong” yellow bracelets, which has raised more than $500 million for cancer research.

What did he do?

The Crime:

After years of denying, Lance Armstrong admitted that he cheated by using banned performance-enhancing drugs while racing. These drugs help him ride faster than all the other cyclists and win a lot of races and prizes and sponsors. Not only that but he lied about everything on numerous occasions.

Lance ArmstrongThe Punishment:

Lance Armstrong has been banned from competing in all sports which follow the World Anti-Doping Agency code. He was stripped of all titles won since August 1998. Among them are the 7 Tour de France titles and the Bronze medal from the Sydney Olympics of 2000. He also has to give back prize money. And then there is the shame… the shame forever…

Here is what Lance Armstrong said “Do I have remorse? Absolutely. Will it grow? Absolutely,” and “This is the first step and these are my actions. I am paying the price but I deserve it.

SophoclesWait, before you go:

What Lance Armstrong did was very wrong, he was caught and he is being punished, but this is a good time to take a little pause and to think about cheating; cheating in school, cheating in sports and cheating in general. What do you really think? We have prepared two polls to see where you stand on the subject.

Here is what Sophocles, a guy that wrote Greek tragedies, said about cheating 2,500 years ago: I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating.

As the polls are fully anonymous (no one knows who answered what and how) please answer what you really think, not what you think the right answer should be!

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In January 2013 Armstrong admitted cheating in a television interview conducted by Oprah Winfrey. Watch the video of how Lance Armstrong talks about telling his 13 year old son that he was a cheat:

 

 

photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnieb/2355309220/”>JohnGoode</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/”>cc</a>

photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/tingkaer/8114505737/”>Kingchief</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/”>cc</a>

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