The Lance Armstrong Case

[HoreTore]

So, Lance Armstrong has just been formally charged by USADA.

What's your opinion on this? Is the sport completely ruined, if its greatest hero was drugged the entire time? And if Armstrong was drugged, how many of his buddies have been drugged as well?

[Fragony]

Release all dope in that sport. If you insist on canabalising on your own tissues, please do.

[gaelic cowboy]

So, Lance Armstrong has just been formally charged by USADA.

What's your opinion on this? Is the sport completely ruined, if its greatest hero was drugged the entire time? And if Armstrong was drugged, how many of his buddies have been drugged as well?

Oh dear pro-cycling is in the gutter again and is anyone really surprised.

Cycling has been rotten with drugs since forever.

[Whacker]

At the highest levels of pretty much any sport you could imagine, I firmly believe that a non-trivial amount of the athletes take performance enhancing drugs. It may not always be something over the top like anabolic steroids, but it's done.

It's a game of hide-and-seek, the players know their sports and governing agencies, and when they are most likely to be tested if ever, so they will cycle themselves on and off whatever it is they are using in order to not get caught. Those who fail to do that or guess ahead correctly pay the price.

I'm somewhat torn on this issue overall. No matter what, what a person does with his or her own body is totally up to them. On the other hand, there's something to be said for having a level playing field in whatever sport is in question. Many (most probably) people are unwilling to use drug performance enhancers, and I do not think they should be punished for that decision by never being able to compete at the higher levels. Most any drug is going to tear up your body even more, which is already on top of the extreme levels of stress that most professional athlete's bodies are under on a daily basis, which is simply a function of them being at the peak levels of their game and fitness in general.

[Ronin]

So, Lance Armstrong has just been formally charged by USADA.

What's your opinion on this? Is the sport completely ruined, if its greatest hero was drugged the entire time? And if Armstrong was drugged, how many of his buddies have been drugged as well?

my personal opinion is that doping is completely prevalent in road cycling, you just don´t perform day after day climbing mountains like that just on steak and pasta.
the question if you get busted or not depends were you are placed in the "race" between dopers and the testers.

does this harm Armstrong's reputation? not to me, I look at it like this:
If everyone is doping, the guy that comes out on front time and time again is still the best guy out of the group, the only thing is that the baseline is not where they pretend it is.

[Papewaio]

I disagree with doping in a drug free competition. So allow it or don't.

But if you think it's okay to use drugs then why not allow mopeds into the competition? After petrochemicals are just a different discipline in chemistry and that's what is competing in drug takers not human performance.

Little more seriously why not have a drug free version of cycling and a drug one.

However the drug inclusive one will have a category similar to formula one manufacturers award.

So you could have Pfizer and other legit companies competing and sponsoring their pharma. Let's see alternative medicine perform in this environment.

[Strike For The South]

Release all dope in that sport. If you insist on canabalising on your own tissues, please do.

LOLZ.

An abatrairy system the bans abatrairy substances.

[Noncommunist]

my personal opinion is that doping is completely prevalent in road cycling, you just don´t perform day after day climbing mountains like that just on steak and pasta.
the question if you get busted or not depends were you are placed in the "race" between dopers and the testers.

does this harm Armstrong's reputation? not to me, I look at it like this:
If everyone is doping, the guy that comes out on front time and time again is still the best guy out of the group, the only thing is that the baseline is not where they pretend it is.

However, it seems that there would be enough of a variety of drugs that differences would be more of a result of different drugs rather than cycling ability.

[rory_20_uk]

Policing of sports needs to me smarter than merely random tests. Although not always the case, after some have been caught there has been a massive spike in the individual's performance in the past. As if a new regime knocked 20% off their times... Even then suspicion is not proof of course.

Sports can either be one of two things:

Purely a freak show where only oddities compete against each other.
A designer drugs show where competitors load up on substances to win.

As others have said, it is taking drugs in a dug free sport that is the problem. It might be more sensible to embrace this rather than deny it.

[gaelic cowboy]

[Gelatinous Cube]

I disagree with doping in a drug free competition. So allow it or don't.

But if you think it's okay to use drugs then why not allow mopeds into the competition? After petrochemicals are just a different discipline in chemistry and that's what is competing in drug takers not human performance.

Little more seriously why not have a drug free version of cycling and a drug one.

However the drug inclusive one will have a category similar to formula one manufacturers award.

So you could have Pfizer and other legit companies competing and sponsoring their pharma. Let's see alternative medicine perform in this environment.

I think this the only option that would preserve a spirit of open competition in the long run.

[HoreTore]

They really should have waited until after the tour.

I find myself completely unimpressed by Carl Sagan now, as all I can think about is when he'll be busted.

[Ronin]

Policing of sports needs to me smarter than merely random tests. Although not always the case, after some have been caught there has been a massive spike in the individual's performance in the past. As if a new regime knocked 20% off their times... Even then suspicion is not proof of course.

Sports can either be one of two things:

Purely a freak show where only oddities compete against each other.
A designer drugs show where competitors load up on substances to win.

As others have said, it is taking drugs in a dug free sport that is the problem. It might be more sensible to embrace this rather than deny it.

I don´t think testing is completely random....on a major race after each state the winner is always tested, along with a group of randoms.
so theoretically a guy with a boost in performance that started winning races would be tested every time he won.

[Sarmatian]

Unfortunately, drugs are common in sport especially in those which are based on purely physical ability, like cycling, running, swimming etc...

[Kadagar_AV]

I would be more surprised if he wasn't doped...

Cycling and weight lifting are two sports where I assume anyone on the top level is doped. I have yet to see anything contradict that view.

[Fragony]

I would be more surprised if he wasn't doped...

Cycling and weight lifting are two sports where I assume anyone on the top level is doped. I have yet to see anything contradict that view.

Indeed, it's pressing the body too far. That is why I think i should just become a pharmaceutical equivalent of thr Formula 1. They all do it.