Steroids... Who Cares?

There seems to be a disconnect between what is being said and what it means: another person has come forward claiming to have witnessed Lance Armstrong taking performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). There are a couple of things to keep in mind about this:

1. The person did not come forward when questioned about it during the last person's attempt to discredit Armstrong. Why not?
2. The person comes forward only when he has a book to sell.
3. All of the "evidence" provided is, at best, hearsay, as opposed to the hundreds of blood and urine tests Armstrong has taken during his long cycling career.

In addition to the above, a contradiction comes up as regards the media and public's perception of PEDs in the sport of cycling: most report or believe that the vast majority of cyclists use PEDs. If that supposition is true then what difference does it make if Armstrong did too? Either he is naturally more gifted (even with cancer) than the best athletes in the world at that sport when they take PEDs or he was one of the majority who were using PEDs, the playing field was, therefore, level, and he still was the best.


It is true that Armstrong has made a life for himself outside of cycling based on the perception that he was a top athlete even after cancer. He gives many cancer patients and survivors hope that they, too, can overcome the debilitating disease and still be world-class in their own lives. If it turns out he did use PEDs, that image and legacy may be hurt, maybe irreparably. However, what shouldn't be ignored is the amount of time and money he has diverted toward cancer issues in an attempt to understand and cure the disease. Does the one overshadow the other?

I have a hard time with the fact that none of these assertions have ever come up except in two circumstances: a person is caught with a positive doping result and/or a person is writing a book about his career in cycling. In the first case, they seem to go with an "everybody is doing it, I was trying to keep up" defense and in the second case they simply need to sell books and making assertions about the most popular, most widely known name in the sport will do that. But those two reasons for making the claims seem to ignore the factual, scientific evidence of the actual blood results. Until someone has undoctored video of Armstrong talking about, using, buying, or providing steroids or other PEDs, I'm not going to believe it.