HOW LANCE ARMSTRONG LOST HIS TOUR DE FRANCE TITLES
The
cyclist's decision to forfeit his titles and not contest charges by the United
States Anti-Doping Agency may be, in a sense, logical
In the Tour de France, a race he
won seven times, Lance Armstrong was so driven that he would chase down
cyclists who offended his sense of fair play. By the same token, he once slowed
to let a rival win a Tour stage to honor his opponent’s competitiveness. So his
decision to forfeit his titles and not contest charges by the United States
Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) that he used performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) and
led a doping ring throughout his career is both surprising and, in a sense,
logical.
Armstrong is
a ferociously competitive beast, but faced with a process he saw as blatantly
unfair and stacked against him, he refused to take part in an arbitration with
USADA over the charges. For example, USADA, the agency that handles drug
testing and enforcement for Olympic-level and other elite athletes who compete
in global events like the Tour, refused to provide the names of the dozen
witnesses slated to testify against him, as is required in U.S. courts. “From
the beginning, we have challenged USADA’s motives, methods and authority to
proceed with a so-called conspiracy charge against Mr. Armstrong,” his
attorneys said in a statement.
USADA has
long insisted, over the course of increasingly vituperative exchanges between
the two parties, that Armstrong is refusing to take part in an arbitration
procedure that he had a part in creating and that he, as an international
cyclist, had agreed to follow. “As is every athlete’s right,” USADA said
in a statement, “if Mr. Armstrong would have contested the USADA charges, all
of the evidence would have been presented in an open legal proceeding for him
to challenge. He chose not to do this, knowing these sanctions would
immediately be put into place.” Armstrong says jurisdiction of his case belongs
to the Union Cycliste Internationale, not to USADA.
With
Armstrong’s decision not to arbitrate, his victories have vanished, although
not necessarily his legacy as the founder of LiveStrong, the cancer advocacy
group that is nearly 15 years old. Certainly, his legend as a cyclist, once
tainted, is forever scarred. It was a great one too. Surviving a cancer that
had spread from his testicle to his lungs and brain, Armstrong returned to
cycling and dominated the Tour for six years, first as the leader of the U.S.
Postal team and later for teams at Discovery Channel, Astana and Radio Shack.
He raised cycling’s profile in the States and magnified the Tour’s
significance. But according to USADA, Armstrong was also the leader of a doping
conspiracy that since 1999 obtained and shared PEDs such as erythropoietin
(EPO) and human growth hormone (HGH).
Armstrong
resolutely defended himself, reminding his critics that he never failed a drug
test during his career — 560 in total, according to the Wall Street Journal.
That allegation-refutation refrain was constant, a part of every story ever
written about him. So Armstrong decided he was finished defending himself.
“Today I turn the page,” he said in a statement. “I will no longer address this
issue, regardless of the circumstances. I will commit myself to the work I
began before ever winning a single Tour de France title: serving people and
families affected by cancer, especially those in underserved communities.” (Disclosure:
I have donated to LiveStrong.)
More than
that, he bitterly resents being singled out by USADA and its leader, Travis
Tygart, for what he labeled “an unconstitutional witch hunt” — a pursuit that
has cost Armstrong millions in legal fees. He was also targeted by
federal investigators who spent three years and millions of taxpayer dollars
pursuing charges that Armstrong somehow defrauded the government by winning the
Tour de France as the leader of the Posties while using PEDs.
The feds
dropped the case without charges being filed. The decision came in the context
of baseball star Barry Bonds’ steroid case — largely an embarrassing government
defeat — and juries’ general lack of concern, from a legal standpoint, about
athletes’ alleged use of PEDs. The potential witnesses in the USPS case
included Floyd Landis, another Tour winner busted for doping and former
Armstrong teammate who claimed that both of them had used PEDs. Landis, though,
had some credibility issues that might have been robustly challenged in a
federal court. So while that case was dropped, the U.S. Attorney shared with
Tygart and USADA some of the information it had obtained. Tygart’s witnesses
purportedly included trusted Armstrong lieutenants like veteran cyclist George
Hincapie, but USADA refused to release names, on the basis that Armstrong could
intimidate them if it did so. Armstrong’s defense team hinted that USADA’s
witnesses had been offered leniency for their own violations if they testified
against him.
Armstrong’s
attorneys tried desperately to head off the USADA case by filing suit in
federal court in Texas, alleging that USADA’s adjudication system didn’t afford
due process. But U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks threw the case out twice.
The first time, he scolded the Armstrong team for trying to use U.S. courts to
vent its criticism of the USADA investigation. But he threw out the revised
suit with some reluctance and was critical of USADA’s behavior. Some of USADA’s
procedures, such as its charging letter, wouldn’t pass muster in federal court,
he said, but the federal court had no business in the court of sport. In one
note, cited by Armstrong’s attorneys, Sparks said, “Among the Court’s concerns
is the fact that USADA has targeted Armstrong for prosecution many years after
his alleged doping violations occurred.” He pointed out that USADA also charged
people along with Armstrong, such as team doctors and managers, over whom it
had no jurisdiction.
When the
federal court threw out his suit, Armstrong figured he had no chance in USADA’s
court. The agency that had been after him for more than 10 years now stood, in
his view, as judge, jury and executioner. So Armstrong, for perhaps the first
and only time in his career, decided not to compete. In his view, he’s already
ahead 560 to 0. Instead, he will take his case to the court of public
opinion. And there we can all judge him.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario