Let's face it, doping and performance enhancing drugs are unavoidable. They are present in every single sport and at every single level. Whether it be Alex Rodriguez who injected himself with steroids and used other enhancing drugs and now Lance Armstrong. They are everywhere. Does that make them necessary to win though? NO! PEDs or performance enhancing drugs are not necessary. Plenty of athletes have won championships without the use of PEDs especially those in the good ole days when PEDs were very uncommon and barely used. So what has changed?
Well sports have become more competitive. Sports were always competitive and people have always been competitive. Who doesn't like winning? I know every since I was little, winning was everything. I would do anything to win, but nothing quite to the extremity of doping to win a major sports championship.
Mandeville and Hobbes would argue that Lance was just being a typical human by being greedy to get ahead. He was doing what he had to do in order to get ahead of everyone. Greed and the ambition to win is what drove Lance through his life and through his cycling career. The only way it was possible for him to win was through doping. Let's be honest, it is humanly impossible to win 7 Tour de France titles and Lance even admitted that in his interview with Oprah.
If cycling is as hard as it is said to be does doping really affect the outcome dramatically, especially when I suspect that Lance was definitely not the only one and was therefore competing against other doping athletes.
However, we must examine the good that came from Lance. Yes, that's right there is good that came from Lance and his doping. While his "wins" are now considered lies; Lance has brought hope to people and cancer. Lance is a survivor of testicular cancer and created LIVEstrong which has donated millions to cancer research and been at the forefront of cancer awareness. Thanks to Lance's story of "hope" and "inspiration", while we know now its fake it still has left an impact on us all.
Thank you Lance for all you have done for cancer awareness. Society shouldn't judge Lance on the lies that built up his foundation and reputation, but for what he has done to help better society.
