Ed, I agree with most of what you said about Armstrong. Regardless of whether or not he doped, you
don’t dominate the sport like he did without working harder than everyone
else. It’s not like you can sit at home
on your ass, ride your bike for an hour a four days a week, get a blood transfusion, and win the Tour de
France. Still, it’s a bummer to think
that Lance felt he needed that extra push.
Jennifer asked me why doping was so prevalent in
cycling. I couldn’t really give a good
answer, although I postulated that it’s because cycling doesn’t involve much
skill, so it levels the playing field more than other sports. What I mean by that is that yes, muscle and
power helps you on the football field, but you have to bring a lot more to the
table than that. You need to have a good
deal of skill to read defenses, read offenses, instincts to follow the play,
etc. And a high level of skill is
required for nearly all sports. Biking
doesn’t seem like it to me. So maybe it’s
log-jammed at the top and everybody is looking for that edge, because you can
only train so many hours a day, right?
Your point about remembering not to “iconify” people is well
taken. I’ve always joked that I’ll never
be able to run for President or even Congress, because by the time the media
drags all of my skeletons out of the closet I’m through! People are people and everybody’s got
junk. Of that much I’m sure.
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