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Does Lance Armstrong deserve another chance?

Roar Rookie
10th March, 2014
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Lance Armstrong's legacy may be to rip world cycling apart as he continues to ignore doping allegations made by former US Postal teammates and staff (Image: AFP)
Roar Rookie
10th March, 2014
37
1366 Reads

Ever since the Lance Armstrong drug saga surfaced, the disgraced cyclist has been angling for a return to international competition.

This has got to be a joke, right? Armstrong took us all for idiots.

He duped the cycling fraternity, he duped the wider sporting community, he duped us, the adoring fans, and he duped his charity, Livestrong.

Some might argue that this quadragenarian drug cheat deserves another chance to show the world what he can do.

Quite simply, this is a repulsive insult to the core values of sports people and fans everywhere.

In fact, Armstrong has already had his second chance.

His inspirational cancer battle and ruthless determination to return to his beloved sport was unfortunately destroyed by his greed and his insatiable corrupted pursuit of glory.

Not only was he idolised by the average cycling fan, he was the face of cancer survival worldwide.

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He represented all that could be achieved after cancer.

All he needed to do was play by the rules, but that seemed all too hard for Armstrong.

He has undoubtedly lost permanent credibility as a sporting competitor, so why should he be allowed back?

Now I’m sure, as avid cycling fans, you are well informed of the Danilo di Luca affair.

He is a proven drug cheat, yet we gave him three chances.

We said “Danilo, don’t do it again” and each of those times, we trusted him.

He spat in our faces three times.

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Like Armstrong, he thought he could get away with it.

This toxic culture, where athletes must win by any means possible clearly cannot be easily bred out.

Who’s to say that Armstrong won’t re-offend?

This begs the question, why would Armstrong need to return to international competition?

To prove us wrong?

To prove he can compete without the use of performance enhancing drugs?

To repair his irreparable reputation?

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What would his fellow competitors think?

Any return would just create unnecessary, but justified, speculation surrounding his performance.

A victory, legitimate or otherwise, would be taken with a grain of salt.

To allow Lance Armstrong back into international competition would be an irresponsible abomination to what our society is built upon.

Sport is about having a fair go and having fun.

Would you feel comfortable in letting a convicted paedophile, serial rapist or remorseless murderer back into your community?

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