Friday, January 18, 2013

Shame on you, Lance.

What a wonderful way to show our children good sportsmanship, honesty and how to enjoy the fruits of their hard work.  We teach our daughter that through practice and dedication, she can succeed.  You teach that yes, you can train, but if you just take some drugs, have some blood transfusions and probably other things, you can succeed.  Don't worry.  You can lie your way out of it.

Did you sleep well after duping everyone?

How did you accept the prize knowing that you didn't deserve it even though there were people who finished behind you-- people who finished honestly?  These were the people who SHOULD HAVE been able to enjoy the spotlight.  They should have been able to get that yellow shirt and all of the fanfare.  You got it instead.  Now, years later, you say that you lied.  How do you think those people feel?

How could you go through photo op after photo op?

How could you have all of those yellow shirts hanging all over your walls?

I cannot understand why you did it.

I cannot understand why you denied it for so long, took so much money for endorsement and offered so little back in repayment.  Why wouldn't you want to pay everyone back every single dime that they gave you to run your lie?

How do you explain all of this to your 5 children, some of whom were on the podium in yellow dresses and helping you to hoist your newest award?

Really?

Why is it that it is so difficult to find honest people who we are willing to have our children look up to? This makes me so mad.  Truly, I can't possibly understand why someone would do this.

:shakes head:

I have no idea.

3 comments:

Rach said...

I believe, if I'm not mistaken, the culture of racing was one of doping--not just Lance, but a majority of them. The thing is, Lance is the one who won so he's the one that faced the most scrutiny.

I'm not defending him, nor am I condoning his actions, I'm saying I believe, as it was (still is?) in baseball, doping was (still is?) endemic to racing.

Remember Floyd Landis? He won the Tour de France, then was identified as having doped and he denied it and denied it and then whoops, oh yeah, I guess I did.

I think if cyclists wanted to remain competitive, they had to do what the others were doing and it was this whole secret community.

That said, Lance was a big fat bullying liar and I'm beyond disappointed in him for that.

I know that in this country we have a tendency to place our sports heroes on pedestals and it sucks when it's revealed they are very flawed and very human. When you are a sports figure (who commands more money in a week than I will ever make in a lifetime...), you have to expect you are going to be idolized and revered and one would hope you would make better choices as a result. :oS

Bailey's Leaf said...

Point well taken. I agree that it isn't just him.

I'm thrilled to see that the Livestrong Foundation will continue despite this.

I'm not very tuned in to sports and heroes and whatnot, but you couldn't help to see him, the yellow shirts, the fanfare and I don't get it. Lance or otherwise. How could you stand up there, knowing full well that the award you were getting was NOT honestly yours and still stick with the sham anyhow?

Are we teaching our children through these dishonest athletes that it is okay to do ANYTHING you have to do to win?

It's not a bad thing to lose, learn and try again. Not everyone is going to be a winner, but I'm hoping that those who are, are honestly winners.

ChupieandJ'smama (Janeen) said...

This makes me sad. I realize doping happens in MANY sports, but he flat out lied about it and even profited from it. And some people lost their jobs because of his lies.
I hope he learned something from all of this.