Episode 8: Lance Armstrong Part 2 (Doping Boogaloo)

As we discussed in the previous episode of Controversial Figures, American Lance Armstrong had just announced his 2nd retirement in 2011 at the age of 33. This was after winning a record breaking seven consecutive Tour de France races as a recent cancer survivor, and having only recently returned from his previous retirement. It was a shock that such a talented and successful athlete would suddenly announce his retirement.

But the revelations that would occur soon after Lance's retirement would be even more shocking. And would explain his abrupt departure.

Today, if you look at Lance Armstrong's Wikipedia page, under Career Achievements, there is a hidden section labeled "Voided results from August 1998 onward". When the hidden section is expanded, it shows the more than 40 professional cycling races Lance Armstrong no longer has credited to his name. Let's get into what lead to Lance losing all of his achievements from 1998 to 2010 and his complete ban from the sport of cycling on part 2 of the Lance Armstrong episode today on the Controversial Figures Podcast.


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Episode Sources:

• CNN Lance Armstrong's Demise https://www.cnn.com/2012/10/22/sport/lance-armstrong-profile-cycling-usada/index.html
• ESPN The Rise and Fall of Lance Armstrong https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/29177242/the-rise-fall-lance-armstrong-need-know-watching-lance
• ESPN 'LANCE' Documentary https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/29209116/lance-part-1-how-watch-stream-espn-lance-armstrong-documentary
• The Guardian. Lance Armstrong's Doping Denials in Quotes. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/jan/18/lance-armstrong-doping-denials-quotes
• Wikipedia Floyd Landis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd_Landis
• Wikipedia Icarus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icarus
• Wikipedia Lance Armstrong  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance_Armstrong
• Wikipedia Michele Ferrari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michele_Ferrari
• Music: The 6 is Silent by Skyjelly

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Transcript

00:00

As we discussed in the previous episode of Controversial Figures, American Lance Armstrong had just announced his 2nd retirement in 2011 at the age of 33. This was after winning a record breaking seven consecutive Tour de France races as a recent cancer survivor, and having only recently returned from his previous retirement. It was a shock that such a talented and successful athlete would suddenly announce his retirement.

00:30

But the revelations that would occur soon after Lance's retirement would be even more shocking. And would explain his abrupt departure.

00:38

Today, if you look at Lance Armstrong's Wikipedia page, under Career Achievements, there is a hidden section labeled "Voided results from August 1998 onward". When the hidden section is expanded, it shows the more than 40 professional cycling races Lance Armstrong no longer has credited to his name. Let's get into what lead to Lance losing all of his achievements from 1998 to 2010 and lead to his complete ban from the sport of cycling on part 2 of the Lance Armstrong episode today on the Controversial Figures Podcast.

01:16

Music Interlude

01:44

Welcome to Controversial Figures; a podcast about intriguing figures in the media. My name is Tammy Hawkins. If you enjoy this podcast, please leave a 5 star rating and comment on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

01:59

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02:21

And with that. Let's discuss our Controversial Figure for today.

02:26

As we mentioned in the introduction, if you haven't listened to the Part 1 episode about Lance Armstrong, we really recommend you go back and give a listen to the intriguing life and the rise in his cycling career before you listen to this story of how it all came crashing down.

02:43

So, just how high had Lance's star risen? In addition to his impressive Tour de France cycling achievements, Lance was becoming an American superstar in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He had meetings and phone calls with American Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush; at one point riding on an Airforce One with George W. Bush. 

03:07

Lance had dated Hollywood starlet Kate Hudson, Ashley Olsen of the Olsen twins fame, and he had been engaged to Sheryl Crow. At his career peak, it was estimated by some that Lance Armstrong's net worth was around $125 million.

03:25

Lance had appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman. During the interview, David Letterman calls reporters and officials that doubted Lance's capability to achieve so many Tour de France wins without the use of performance enhancing drugs as "those idiots" for not believing in Lance's inspirational story. Lance confidently laughs at Letterman's comment and says snidely, "yeah, performance enhancing chemotherapy" to a large gust of laughter in the crowd. This was common for Lance. He had been battling doping rumors for years at this point. He often would mention his cancer when denying he was doping, emphasizing how he was lucky to be alive and would never put additional harm towards his body.

04:08

These are some of Lance's quotes over the years when he was asked if the doping rumors were true:

04:14

July 1999: "I have been on my deathbed, and I'm not stupid. I can emphatically say I am not on drugs."

Jan 2001: "The simple truth is that we outwork everyone. But when you perform at a higher level in a race, you get questions about doping."

Jan 2004: "I have never had a single positive doping test, and I do not take performance-enhancing drugs."

Aug 2005: "I have never doped. I can say it again, but I've said it for seven years."

Aug 2005: "Why would I enter into a sport and then dope myself up and risk my life again? That's crazy. I would never do that. No way."

Nov 2005: "How many times do I have to say it? … Well, it can't be any clearer than 'I've never taken drugs.'"

05:30

The brewing doping rumors surrounding Lance Armstrong and his team would break wide open into a full-fledged scandal in 2010.

05:37

American Floyd Landis was bitter against Lance, having left the US Postal team after serving for years as Lance's lieutenant, or chief domestique. He left to chase his own fame outside of Lance's shadow with another team - and he found it, obtaining multiple first places in races in 2006. However, those results and Floyd's 2006 Tour De France victory were nullified after a positive doping test in 2006, indicated that Floyd's testosterone levels were well above normal level after his performance in Stage 17 of the Tour de France.

06:16

After he was disgraced, Floyd decided he would take others down with him. 

06:22

Floyd Landis admitted via email in May 2010 to doping and accused Lance Armstrong and others on the US Postal team at that time of the same. The Wall Street Journal reported that Floyd Landis had sent a series of emails to senior cycling and anti-doping officials in which he admitted to doping from June 2002 through his victory in the 2006 Tour de France. He accused several former teammates of using EPO and blood transfusions in the 2002 and 2003 seasons; and Floyd claimed there was blood doping at the 2004 Tour de France.

07:04

Floyd Landis also alleged that he assisted Levi Leipheimer and Dave Zabriskie in taking EPO before the Tour of California. FLoyd denied that he had used synthetic testosterone during the 2006 Tour de France, but admitted to using human growth hormone and other doping modalities. 

07:25

The 2006 Tour de France was the only race to produce evidence Floyd Landis had ever used banned substances - and those substances found were testosterone, the only drug he claimed he hadn't used. Landis admitted that he had no physical evidence to support his allegations of others' involvement in doping, but that his emails were intended to "clear his conscience".

07:48

Based on Floyd Landis's allegations, the U.S. Justice Department led an investigation into the possible crimes conducted by the U.S. Postal Service Cycling Team.  Doping on any team is a bad idea, but it's a super bad idea to dope on a team that was backed by the American government's money. 

08:06

The Food and Drug Administration were also involved in the investigation. Lance Armstrong hired a criminal defense attorney to represent him in the investigation at the same time he was competing in the 2010 Tour de France. 

08:20

Lance Armstrong and team maintained that Floyd Landis and his coach had asked for a spot on Lance's current team, Team RadioShack, and Landis only went public with the allegations as a shakedown tactic after being denied a contract.

08:35

It was known, when you bike on Lance Armstrong's team, you are biking for Lance. He always had the dominant sprinter position, and you were there to make him win. After a few years, each teammate would eventually become frustrated, and leave to obtain their own fame. When they did so, they became Lance's immediate enemy. Lance was determined, competitive and believed in extreme loyalty. When you decided to no longer lift Lance up, you would then be held down by Lance. This obviously led to a lot of bitterness in the peloton.

09:10

Floyd Landis went on to file a federal whistleblower lawsuit against Lance Armstrong under the federal False Claims Act. The False Claims Act allows citizens to sue on behalf of the government alleging the government has been defrauded. 

09:24

In the lawsuit, Floyd Landis alleged that Lance Armstrong and team managers defrauded the US government when they accepted money from the US Postal Service while violating world antidoping regulations. In the background, Floyd was negotiation whistleblower terms that involved mitigated criminal repercussions, and a whistleblower monetary award.

09:49

Lance Armstrong continued to vehemently deny any doping allegations, in January 2011 saying quote "If you're trying to hide something, you wouldn't keep getting away with it for 10 years. Nobody is that clever."

10:03

Lance Armstrong announced his retirement from competitive cycling 'for good' on February 16, 2011, while still facing a US federal investigation into doping allegations.

10:17

In May 2011, Lance was still denying the allegations. A quote from Lance at this time, "Twenty-plus-year career, 500 drug controls worldwide, in and out of competition. Never a failed test. I rest my case." Unfortunately for Lance, the anti doping agency was going back and testing more of Lance's stored samples.

10:43

In June 2012, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (also known as USADA) officially accused Lance Armstrong of doping and trafficking of drugs, based on retested blood samples from 2009 and 2010, and testimony from witnesses including former teammates. This included key testimony from previous teammate Frankie Andreu and his wife Betsy, who testified Lance told cancer doctors in their presence in 1996 that he had doped with EPO, growth hormone, and steroids. Frankie also admitting, supposedly under the pressure of Lance, he began using performance enhancing drugs himself in 1995.

11:27

With this testimony, Lance was accused of putting pressure on teammates to take unauthorized performance-enhancing drugs. In October 2012, USADA formally charged Lance with running a massive doping ring. It also sought to ban him from participating in sports sanctioned by WADA (or the World Anti Doping Agency) for life. 

11:49

Lance Armstrong chose not to appeal the findings, saying it would not be worth the toll on his family. As a result, Lance was stripped of all of his sports achievements from August 1998 onward, including his seven Tour de France titles. He also received a lifetime ban from all sports that follow the World Anti-Doping Code; this effectively ended his competitive cycling career and significantly limited the professional sports he could pivot toward. 

12:19

The International Cycling Union (or the UCI) upheld USADA's decision and decided that his stripped wins would not be allocated to other riders. An incredible shame for those cyclists that worked hard that entire decade to compete in the Tour de France who might have obtained first place were it not for Lance.

12:40

In early 2013, US Justice Department officials joined the federal whistleblower lawsuit aimed at clawing back the earnings money from Lance Armstrong.

12:50

Along the way, Lance Armstrong was taking other extreme collateral damage, rapidly losing all of his major sponsors including Nike, Oakley, and Anheuser Busch. It was estimated his lost endorsement deals cost him $75 million in one day.

13:08

After a decade of public denials, in a January 2013 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Lance Armstrong abruptly reversed course and admitted to doping - using EPO, testosterone, and blood transfusions.

13:23

While admitting wrongdoing in the interview, Lance also said it was "absolutely not" true that he was doping in 2009 or 2010, and claimed that the last time he "crossed the line" was in 2005.

13:40

In November 2013, Lance Armstrong settled a lawsuit with Acceptance Insurance Company (AIC). AIC had sought to recover $3 million it had paid Lance as bonuses for winning the Tour de France from 1999 to 2001. The suit was settled for an undisclosed sum one day before Armstrong was scheduled to give a deposition under oath

14:03

Lance Armstrong was criticized for working with trainer Michele Ferrari. Ferrari claimed that he was introduced to Lance in 1995. Though Ferrari was banned from practicing medicine with cyclists by the Italian Cycling Federation, Lance met with Ferrari regularly, even as late as 2010 near Italy. 

14:24

According to the USADA report, Lance Armstrong paid Ferrari over a million dollars from 1996 to 2006. This was despite Lance's claim that he severed his professional relationship with Ferrari in 2004. The report also includes numerous eyewitnesses of Ferrari injecting Armstrong with EPO on a number of occasions.

14:48

The matter was settled in April 2018 when Lance Armstrong agreed to pay the United States Government $5 million. During the proceedings, it was revealed that the US Postal Service had paid $31 million in sponsorship to Lance and team between 2001 and 2004. The Department of Justice accused Armstrong of violating his contract with the USPS and committing fraud when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs. It was reported that Floyd Landis received$1.1 million as a result of his whistleblower actions allegedly.

15:28

Despite the lawsuits, loss of career earning potential, an sponsorship money, Lance is doing ok financially today. A saving grace for Lance Armstrong was that he was an early investor of Uber through investment firm LOWERCASE Capital in addition to some other wise investments. 

15:45

It's estimated Lance's initial investment of around $100,000 into Uber in it's starting days has turned into somewhere between $20-30 million dollars. Lance Armstrong has stated that investment is what saved his family financially throughout the lawsuits and required monetary paybacks.

16:05

So, what are we to think about Lance Armstrong? I think many feel a hatred. Like they were cheated by Lance. I'll admit that my personal feelings on this matter are…complex.

16:18

In a 2015 interview with BBC News, Lance Armstrong stated that if it was still 1995, he would "probably do it again". He would repeat the same consideration in the 30 for 30 documentary Lance in 2020, which I would highly recommend watching.

16:37

In watching the 30 for 30 Lance documentary, I had the following reflections. Lance is an extremely disciplined, competitive, and narcissistic flawed human. He fought for greatness. There is absolutely no denying that Lance put in extreme time, energy, and work into crafting his immaculate physique and cycling technique. He was absolutely one of the best. 

17:10

The Tour de France is 2,200 miles over 21 days. To obtain and keep the physical conditioning that a race of such endurance like that requires means that Lance Armstrong was literally thinking about what he was eating and doing every moment of every day for a large majority of his life to be at his level of talent. He utterly dedicated his life to his sporting profession, and his extreme dedication lead up to his success.

17:49

But when he rose to the top professional ranks, and he knew he was doing everything right - diet, exercise, dedication, focus…yet he was getting smoked in the Tour de France his first couple of years. And he knew why. He knew others were doping. It was that moment in which he made the fateful decision of whether he would become the greatest or not. 

18:28

If he didn't dope, the likelihood of his taking number 1 against the others that were doping was extremely low. If he did dope, he thought he stood a chance. And so, he did it. And he won and didn't get caught. Over and over and over again. He hired the most talented doctor in the cycling sport known for crafting the perfect balance of science and performance; that doctor , Michele Ferrari, wanted to find the perfect creature, and Lance was honored to be his Frankenstein. He was the best Frankenstein, committing to every bit of the performance improvement plan, and blowing competitors away year after year.

19:07

Each year of competitive sports, the drugs, techniques, and equipment get better. It is a battle of rapidly evolving science and technology combined with slower evolving nature. As long as there is fame and monetary gain associated with competitive sporting achievements, there will always be cheating. Full stop. 

19:29

So, if we understand that there will always be cheating, including doping - why do we expend such energy, time, and money in attempting to stop the inevitable? Chasing that allusion of 'fairness'? Could we obtain that allusion in other ways? What if we allowed the use of substances at the discretion and choice of the athlete, requiring them to document what they take and evaluate the associated health, learning from the use of these drugs instead of everyone hiding what is already happening. If the athlete's monitored health indicates risk, they are not allowed to compete. 

20:16

Address the protection of the athletes' health instead of the never winning chase of new performance drug science, formulating a test, and the arbitrary determination of which drugs are or are not ok. The testing will never keep up with the evolution of performance enhancing drugs in my humble opinion, and I don't believe in chasing the unattainable goal.

20:37

I don't know if monitoring health and allowing drugs is the right answer. But I firmly believe the answer we've been using for decades that hasn't worked while costing significant millions to develop, conduct, and administer should be evaluated. A great documentary about how flawed the entire USADA and WADA antidoping organizations are the 2017 movie Icarus. The documentary covers an amateur cyclists obtaining performance enhancing drugs and assistance in passing drug tests from the head of the Russian antidoping laboratory. Of course those administering the tests are cheating. Do you realize the millions in bribes that can be obtained? Can we just stop this whole allusion already?

21:25

So, I personally do not vilify Lance for doping. I think he felt pressured to do what all of the other competitors were doing. The old 'everyone else was doing that speed on the highway' defense. This type of doping occurs in baseball, football, mixed martial arts, and essentially every other sport you can think of (even horse riding - I'm not kidding, google it - the horses and the riders dope).

21:48

I don't feel doping is per se smart to do. Lance Armstrong himself in the 30 for 30 Lance documentary questions if taking human growth hormone perhaps lead to the aggressive growth cancer in his body at the extremely young age of 25.

22:03

But I personally don't think someone should be disgraced for simply for doping. However, I'm not done with my diatribe yet…here's where the mixed feelings, and frankly my anger come in around the Lance Armstrong situation in particular…

22:19

What is unique to Lance Armstrong is the use of cancer as a shield to deny the doping allegations. He falsely gave hope to cancer survivors while using his medical condition as a hero banner to bold face lie to everyone around him for over a decade about what he accomplished post-cancer survival. That is what I find absolutely repulsive. Let me share a few samples…

22:46

After Lance's first post cancer win in 1999, he was quoted as saying, "I hope it sends out a fantastic message to all survivors around the world. We can return to what we were before – and even better.”

23:02

A quote from his 2001 Nike commercial, " “This is my body, and I can do whatever I want to it. I can push it, study it, tweak it; listen to it. Everybody wants to know what I am on. What am I on? I am on my bike busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on?”

23:22

And probably the most cringeworthy one as it's very clear what Lance is insinuating… At the 2005 Tour de France, with Sheryl Crow looking on crying with pride at her winning fiance, 1st place winner Lance Armstrong said the following quote, “The last thing I’ll say for the people that don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics, I’m sorry for you. I’m sorry you can’t dream big and I’m sorry you don’t believe in miracles. But this is one hell of a race. This is a great sporting event and you should stand around and believe it. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people.”

24:06

Lance Armstrong himself owns the despicability of using the cancer shield to protect himself against the true doping allegations. He regrets that part of the overall scandal. He regrets the potential false hope he gave to cancer survivors by not disclosing he was using other drugs to boost his recovery. He does not regret doping, and he confirms he would do it all again. 

24:31

Put yourself in Lance's shoes in your early 20s, a professional athlete in peak sports shape and knowing you could be a sports superhero…if you just did what everyone else was doing…knowing the decisions would lead to hundreds of millions of net worth, dating of stars, hanging out with Presidents…would you do it? Would you dope?

24:55

And when your $125 million dynasty was at risk, and no one had solid proof, would you deny it until someone did have proof? Thinking you are protecting your career and your non for profit organization that is doing real good in the world. It's easy to say no outside of the situation. 

25:15

I think Lance is human and he made mistakes while in a situation bigger than his young self could handle. And once in for a penny, in for a pound. He absolutely sucks for using the cancer shield, and he owns that now. It cannot be ignored that Lance Armstrong also did a lot of good for cancer patient health awareness and assistance. Does it make up for his sins? Probably not. But we all have sins, no?

25:44

I do wish that Lance would continue to use his influence and experience positively to guide others in sports potentially following his path to advise them of the personal health and professional career risks of doping in today's environment. And perhaps fight for overall sport performance drug and health monitoring reform.

26:02

Lance today lives with his wife Anna and their children in Colorado. He owns a coffee shop and bike shop. He owns stock in some biking companies, and is an advisor. He's continued settling lawsuits with insurance companies clawing back his different competitive winnings, even over the past couple of years. Lance continues to champion cancer awareness and cancer research initiatives. He says he is happy with his life, and has no regrets as it all taught him to grow. I wish Lance good health and continued growth.

26:41

Thank you for listening to this episode of Controversial Figures. Just a reminder, please like, subscribe, and leave a rating and comment for Controversial Figures in your favorite podcast app. We have a Twitter page now @FiguresPodcast - so please follow us, give us recommendations of Controversial Figures you'd like to hear.

27:00

This podcast is an independent podcast created by Tammy Hawkins. This is funded by those that donate, so please join Patreon and give what you can. Research references are available in the show notes as are musical references. Thank you so much for listening, thank you so much for your support - be well.