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This has dragged on for too long now; it’s been over 10 years of Lance Armstrong and his lying, cheating ways. So what, on God’s green earth, would make anyone believe what he said last night in a comfy, cozy setting with Oprah Winfrey? He’s been a lying, conniving, selfish and shallow man for a long time, and it’s time for people to stop caring.
I was one of the naive ones who said, ‘I won’t believe he did anything wrong until I get real proof that he cheated.’ Let’s be honest, sports is a jealous business, so even as the evidence was mounting, I refused to believe he cheated. I thought everyone wanted a piece of Armstrong’s fame and popularity and the easiest way to go about it was to attack him.
Boy, was I wrong.
You know what though – I don’t care. I don’t care about Lance Armstrong, I don’t care that he cheated and I don’t care that he was just keeping up with everyone else in the sport of cycling, which is one of the most corrupt sports in the world. What I do care about is the way he treated people. How nasty and rigorous he was in attacking the people that accused him, rightfully, of cheating. Even though I don’t know any of the people he hurt personally, I feel for those who were caught up in Armstrong’s lies.
Let’s not get this mixed up, not many people in the United States care about cycling, but that’s not the issue. However, with the news of Armstrong admitting he cheated, everything else is under a microscope, including his Livestrong foundation. Now his foundation that has raised so much money and helped raise awareness for a deadly disease will be questioned. All the horrible things Lance Armstrong did for cycling pale in comparison to the suspicion he’s created over his foundation for cancer research.
Ask yourself this, do you care more about him lying and cheating about a sport very few of us care about, or do you care more about what this means to a foundation he created to help fight cancer?
He’s a coward, a liar and a cheat, we all know that; Armstrong himself knows that. Shame on Armstrong for everything he’s done in the world of cycling, but none of that compares to letting down hundreds of thousands of people who looked up to Armstrong and believed that if he could beat cancer and live a healthy life, so could they. And shame on Armstrong for not realizing what was more important than winning the world’s greatest cycling race; his impact on all the people who believed in him and his supported him throughout his entire career. Now where do those people turn for inspiration?
Lance Armstrong is a fraud, plain and simple. He lived a life of lies and now everything he’s been involved in now has to be questioned. Unfortunately, it includes the one good thing that actually came out of his deceit – the Livestrong foundation.
Sleep well Lance, I hope your happy that your conscience is finally clean. Unlike your blood for all those years.
you can contact or follow Ben on twitter @BenGrimaldi
