Call it a case of the strong arm of the law finally spearing Lance.
The Hall of Shame welcomed its latest inductee in defrocked cycling superstar Lance Armstrong. After years of back-pedalling from the truth, Armstrong recently admitted that he took performance-enhancing drugs in winning seven Tour de France titles from 1999 to 2005. Within two days after confirming his demons, Armstrong lost $75 million in sponsorship deals. Armstrong will never wear the yellow jersey again as it is all downhill for him.
Armstrong?s confession actually came when the noose around his neck was already tightening. He was facing a U.S. federal investigation for doping when he announced his retirement in 2011. In June 2012, Armstrong was stripped of all the titles he won in cycling starting in August 1998 after the United States Anti-Doping Agency formally charged him of using illicit performance-enhancing drugs. In October 2012, the International Cycling Union, cycling?s governing body, stripped Armstrong of all his Tour de France titles.
Armstrong is the latest high-profile athlete to be exposed as a cheater. Through the years, the world of sports has been plagued with athletes who refuse to compete on the same level. It is also worth noting that when caught, these athletes offer a similar excuse: that they had no idea their actions constituted cheating.
In January 2009, Mexican boxer Antonio Margarito was busted by the California State Athletic Commission for attempting to use tampered gloves in his welterweight showdown with American Shane Mosley. Margarito claimed he had no idea his trainer Javier Capetillo put something in his handwraps. A thorough investigation however suggested that the handwraps of Margarito might have also been tampered when he knocked out Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto in 2008.
In October 2007, track and field star Marion Jones, who collared five medals (three gold, two bronze) in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, admitted taking performance-enhancing drugs even before the 2000 Games. Jones, who later served six months in jail for lying before a grand jury about her drug use, forfeited her medals and prize winnings dating back to September 2000.
Jones made her mark in the Olympics where cheaters abound. New York native Fred Lorz handily won the marathon in the 1904 Olympics and was about to receive his gold medal when organizers discovered that he flagged down a passing car during the race and rode 11 miles as a passenger. Stella Walsh bested the competition in the women?s 100-meter dash at the 1932 Olympics and easily won the gold. After Walsh was fatally shot in a hold-up in Cleveland, it was discovered that she had male genitalia. In the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was hailed as the ?Fastest Man Alive? after he beat American Carl Lewis for the gold in the 100-meter dash. A few days later, Johnson was stripped of the gold medal for testing positive for anabolic steroids.
Even the Paralympics have not been spared of cheaters. In the 2000 Paralympics, Spain?s basketball team won the gold medal in the ?intellectual disability? category. As it turned out, 10 of the team?s 12 players did not undergo the tests required to prove mental deficiency and were in fact perfectly normal.
The list of cheaters just goes on. Armstrong may be the most famous Tour de France champ to be busted for drug use, but he was far from being the first. American Floyd Landis topped the 2006 Tour de France but was stripped of the title after testing positive for banned substances. Landis maintained his innocence until 2010, when he confessed to the charges and further revealed that Armstrong was also into the illicit habit.
One thing about cheaters, they are also good at squealing on each other.
