No Place To Hide For Lance Armstrong

In this blog I had mused about the lack of any strong links between Lance Armstrong and doping, although I must admit that it had always been too good to be true. And with the interview with Lance's old teammate and one-time close friend, Tyler Hamilton on tonight's 60 Minutes, there cannot be any more doubts about it - Lance Armstrong doped his way to 7 Tour de France titles and one more sporting legend and indeed certifiable hero in the manner he came back from his fight with cancer lies exposed as a mere charlatan. Does this negate his achievements? Not really - almost every top rider in the Tour was doping and in fact every rider save one, who was second or third in all seven of Armstrong's victories has at some point tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. So doping in pro cycling was almost required if you wanted to keep up. However, it is especially painful to find Lance Armstrong in the same category - we always held him to a higher standard and with all his work raising money for cancer victims he was even an inspirational figure to so many. This fall from grace will be one of the hardest in the sports world.

And it may not end there - next in line could well be Tiger Woods - his personal reputation is already in tatters, but the average sports fan will forgive almost any personal failing as long as the sporting greatness is not in question. But now the talk is getting stronger of Tiger's possible steroid use and his many detractors are going to keep digging.

I have always wondered - what causes a particular drug or approach (say, blood doping) to be banned, but not others - say, a new energy drink or the shark skin suit for swimmers? Ultimately, it does not matter - for the very appeal of sports is how black and white it is - there is a line and you either crossed it or not - there is no "I just grazed it" or "I saw the other guy do the same thing," whether it is the sideline in a football game or the list of banned drugs and practices. And now it has caught up with Lance Armstrong, and another sliver of innocence has been lost.