SPEAK OUT: Are Lance Armstrong Doping Charges Unfair?
Howard County Executive Ken Ulman weighs in.
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Is there an unfair crusade going on against the famed cyclist and former cancer patient Lance Armstrong, who is facing renewed allegations of doping?
The debate is flowing across the Internet and on Wednesday, Howard County Executive Ken Ulman, whose brother, Doug Ulman, is the CEO of Armstrong's cancer charity Livestrong, weighed in from his Facebook page.
“Let's focus on what matters most for our nation & not continue to chase a man who has done more in the fight against cancer than anyone else,” Ken Ulman posted to his public Facebook page on Wednesday night.
Armstrong, 40, has denied allegations of using performance enhancing drugs and participating in a “doping conspiracy.” He was formally charged by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and faces losing his victories as a seven-time Tour de France winner, according to an Associated Press story on the Huffington Post.
On his Twitter page, Armstrong called the agency’s move a “witch hunt.”
“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,” Armstrong said in a statement.
Armstrong is also a testicular cancer survivor who formed the Lance Armstrong Foundation to help others struggling with cancer.
Ken Ulman's brother, Doug Ulman, is a three-time cancer survivor and is the president and CEO of Livestrong, Armstrong's cancer charity.
Doug Ulman and his family also founded the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults, a Columbia-based nonprofit that helps young adults affected by cancer and their families.
The USADA is accusing Armstrong of “using and promoting the use of the blood booster EPO, blood transfusions, testosterone, human growth hormone and anti-inflammatory steroids,” according to a copy of an agency letter obtained by the Associated Press.
Tell us below: What do you think of the allegations against Armstrong?
Richard Hiteshew
9:57 am on Friday, June 15, 2012
For God's sake, don't we have more important things to deal with?
MikeC
12:47 pm on Friday, June 15, 2012
As far as important news, yes, we have much "more important things to deal with". The USADA is doing its job and not allowing sleeping dogs lie (so to speak.) I'm a Lance fan and there are much more people who are much bigger avid fans than I am. This cannot be a "witch hunt". Why would a U.S. agency want to do something willingly that will effectively take away a sport's most prestigious honor from someone who is as much a national hero as Armstrong is?
If it is revealed that Armstrong lied it would be incredibly damaging, but cycling is a sport in which doping has become so ingrained with success in the sport that it is nearly impossible to succeed without doping (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_doping_cases_in_cycling).
I recall an interview I heard with a pro cyclist who was part of a lesser European team. His times were slowly improving and so some much better teams were taking an interest in him. Like anyone with ambition in their career field when offered a promotion to higher ranks it was very difficult to resist. But he absolutely refused to take part in any doping. The contract with the big name team put so much pressure on him to dope that in the end he refused and was never offered another elevation again. I cannot recall the name of the cyclist or I would post the information here.
Penny Riordan
2:35 pm on Friday, June 15, 2012
MikeC, I have my suspicions about Lance, mostly because if something is too good to be true, part of it probably isn't. :) It's sort of the same with with Greg Mortenson and Three Cups of Tea and how some of his story turned out to be fabricated and his foundation hardly spent any money in Pakistan or Afghanistan. When the person becomes bigger than the cause, that's where things can get slippery.