Lance Armstrong Research Paper

662 Words3 Pages

“Enough is enough.” Seven-time Tour de France winner, cancer survivor, and patient advocate Lance Armstrong put an end to the accusations of doping that have been thrown at him for years. Armstrong has been a controversial figure in a sport filled by doping scandals. As the only cyclist to win the Tour de France seven times, he became a magnet for rumors and accusations of cheating through doping. The use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) has negatively influenced his career and health and has created a dramatic effect on sports and society today.

The use of PEDs has negatively influenced his career and health through the side effects of Erythropoietin (EPO), loss of support from the community and being striped of all his titles. …show more content…

The USADA had to create new drug test for drugs such as EPO. Soon EPO testing will never be left to question as Dr Yannis Pitsiladis of Glasgow University and his team, who are funded by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), revealed that they are on the brink of a revolutionary erythropoietin (EPO) detection breakthrough which will look for the effects of EPO in the body's cellular anatomy rather than its presence in the bloodstream or urine. This means that athletes will have no way to cheat the system when it comes to EPO use. Armstrong being a cancer survivor inspired many people including cancer patients and finding out he cheated was a crushing blow. Some now say the yellow wrist bands from Livestrong look more like a symbol of gullibility than of hope. This looks really bad on Armstrong, think about how you would feel being told you let down thousands of cancer patients. Use of PEDs is ruining not just cycling but all sports especially endurance sports. With all of these athletes using PEDs, it's difficult to tell who is and isn’t using. Even when athletes deny using them, like Armstrong did for so many years, we don’t know who is telling the truth. PED use ruins sports as it is impossible to know who is really the best at something when you have liars and cheaters using PEDs to improve