By Taylor Nigrelli
Sports Assignment Editor
It’s long been a hobby of mine to try to decide who the title of biggest villain in sports belongs to at a given time. At the present moment, the title unquestionably belongs to Lance Armstrong.
In the days leading up to his interview with Oprah Winfrey, support for Armstrong in the Twitterverse seemed to be growing.
The common refrain from his supporters was it didn’t matter if he cheated in his races because of all the work he’s done for the cancer charity, LiveStrong.
The problem with this defense is it completely ignores most of Armstrong’s misdeeds while overstating the “good” he has done.
It would be bad enough if Armstrong simply used performance-enhancing drugs to give himself an edge while denying allegations for more than a decade.
What people fail to mention is Armstrong was charged with running what the United States Anti-Doping Associate has called “the largest and most sophisticated doping program the sport has ever seen,” according to an Oct. 10 Guardian article. According to the same article, Armstrong pressured all members of the US Postal Service Cycling Team to use these banned substances.
Not only did Armstrong lead a doping ring and force his teammates into using these dangerous drugs, he also did his best to silence those who told the truth about him. In his interview with Winfrey, he admitted to suing dozens of journalists, acquaintances, employees and teammates for defamation when they accused him of cheating. In fact, he admitted he had sued so many people that he had trouble remembering them all. So, basically, he sued, black-mailed and black listed dozens of people even though he knew they were telling the truth.
Yet people are willing to look past this because of all this “good” work Armstrong has done for cancer research. But it’s rarely mentioned that the LiveStrong foundation started phasing out donations to cancer research in 2005 and hasn’t accepted any donations for research since 2010.
The majority of money spent by the foundation is used toward awareness programs. According to LiveStrong’s official website, 82 percent of funds are used for program activities and 48 percent of those funds are used for educational programs. The rest of the money mostly goes to grants for survivors, fundraising events, employee salaries and government lobbying.
This is not to say LiveStrong doesn’t do any good, however. Its success is made possible by the donations of average people and the work of LiveStrong employees. In addition, Armstrong’s support of the foundation doesn’t make up for the morally reprehensible actions he has taken in the past decade.
He’s cheated, lied, threatened those who opposed him and falsely touted himself as a hero for years.
And yet, people are willing to forgive him simply because he’s associated himself with a cancer charity. He stands for something that nearly any reasonable person in his position would stand for. So because he’s anti-cancer he’s being let off the hook?
Armstrong doesn’t deserve the support or defense of anyone but a lawyer. It’s time for people to stop viewing Armstrong as an inspiration and start taking him for what he is.
Armstrong is a sociopath, a bully, a liar, a criminal and above all else, a villain.
