Lance Vs USADA

Vs.

 

                Lance Armstrong has been banned for what will probably be the remainder of the 2012 triathlon season because of more doping allegations. These are not allegations into new doping, but rather a re-hash of the same charges that have been brought on years ago. I personally, and for the record, think that these charges are complete crap and that people are trying to simply smear Lance's good name. My biggest argument for this is simple. Lance is an American who won the Tour de France. Let me retype that with the appropriate emphasis.

               Lance is an AMERICAN who WON the Tour de France. The French historically dislike Americans. I don't know if it's because they're still bitter that Napoleon sold off the French territory to help fund his war known as the Louisiana Purchase, or if it's because the American's had to bail them out during both world wars (maybe it's because we remind them of the world war fact all the time too). In any case, the French are NOT fans of Americans. When you get an American who comes in and wins the Tour de France, crap is going to hit the fan. Not only did Lance win, he won MULTIPLE times. He won for over half a decade! If he was dirty, they would have proved it during that time, but they didn't. Floyd Landis was accused of being dirty before he was even able to leave Paris a few years back. Of course Floyd denied it for years, and then finally admitted it. He then had the audacity to try and smear Lance's good name.

               One of the other big issues that I have is that earlier this year the Federal Gov't dropped their 2 year investigation into these doping charges, citing that there was not enough evidence. During this investigation, people were interviewed, former team mates, ex-wives, coaches and trainers, support staff. Nothing was enough to prove anything, and the fed's dropped the criminal probe. Armstrong has said the investigation took a heavy emotional toll and he was relieved when it ended.

          But USADA officials insisted they would continue to pursue their own probe into Armstrong and his former teams and doctors, and notified him of the charges in a 15-page letter the other week. This all comes on the heels of Lance's victories in the triathlon world. Winning his last two 70.3 races, and gearing up for Ironman France, Lance was looking to test himself on the full distance and then tweak anything needed before going to Kona for the World Championships. All of that has come to a screeching halt because of USADA. Unfortunately, unlike federal prosecutors, USADA isn't burdened by proving a crime occurred, just that there was use of performance-enhancing drugs. Even then, the burden of proof is very slim for action to take place. Really all you need is someone who is willing to say that they saw, heard, or thought they heard something happened and you have an open case. If the fed's were unable to prove anything, I'm really doubtful that the USADA investigation will bring anything up. People have been named, but given super sweetheart deal for their testimony. So tell me, how honest is someone going to be when they are, essentially, getting paid for their testimony. Testimony that wasn't able to prove anything to the fed's will now, all of a sudden, allegedly prove something? PA-LEASE! This is just a BS probe to prevent Lance from being successful in the triathlon realm. I really wonder if USADA would be doing this if Lance wasn't doing triathlon, or if he wasn't being successful at it.

"It is a vendetta, which has nothing to do with learning the truth and everything to do with settling a score and garnering publicity at Lance's expense," Armstrong's attorney Luskin wrote.

So now, Lance is left doing this, and waiting to see what will happen next.

Armstrong, maintained his innocence, saying in his statement: "I have never doped, and, unlike many of my accusers, I have competed as an endurance athlete for 25 years with no spike in performance, passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one. ...

"Any fair consideration of these allegations has and will continue to vindicate me."