11–20 of 113 posts
Unpopular opinion but I really think that all competitions should be untested like WSM. As it currently stands, the competition in most sports is about who has the resources to best hide their PED use.
The amount of money our governments waste on stadiums and financial incentives for sportsball teams is already ridiculous, it should at least not be completely fraudulent.
> I do think that history has treated Mr. Armstrong unfairly for the essential act of his cheating. > To be sure, Mr. Armstrong brought much of his disparate treatment on himself. Perhaps history, but I think modernity has been far too kind to Mr. Armstrong. I'm floored that Lance Armstrong is still given a degree of celebrity and room as a public figure, and still more that he can make money off of that. That his ce…
> That his celebrity and accolades were obtained fraudulently Important to remember that when they took Armstrong’s trophies away, the next person who hadn’t yet been caught doping finished 10th. During that era of cycling, 87% of top 10 finishers tested positive for doping at least once. https://www.businessinsider.com/lance-armstrong-doping-tour-... That doesn’t excuse his doping, of course. It just means that at t…
the other is being a raging asshole who was outspoken against doping, published multiple books professing how clean he was and how all the doping rumours were just people out to get him, claimed the whole country of france was dishonest, accused his competitors of doping, accused other cyclists who he didn't even race against of doping... all while he was not only pumping himself full of drugs to win races, but also running his team's doping program and pushing his teammates to risk their own health by taking performance enhancing drugs.
the second part of this is what he doesn't deserve any forgiveness for.
Unpopular opinion but I really think that all competitions should be untested like WSM. As it currently stands, the competition in most sports is about who has the resources to best hide their PED use.
It's about safety, really - most performance-enhancing drugs are detrimental to the body of the enhanced. If someone eats lots of potatoes and that gives them the energy to perform well at soccer, their performance was certainly "enhanced" by a "substance", but nobody would care.
> I do think that history has treated Mr. Armstrong unfairly for the essential act of his cheating. > To be sure, Mr. Armstrong brought much of his disparate treatment on himself. Perhaps history, but I think modernity has been far too kind to Mr. Armstrong. I'm floored that Lance Armstrong is still given a degree of celebrity and room as a public figure, and still more that he can make money off of that. That his ce…
Unpopular opinion but I really think that all competitions should be untested like WSM. As it currently stands, the competition in most sports is about who has the resources to best hide their PED use.
Not only tested but samples archived to test later as drugs and assays become known to the testers. The amount of money our governments waste on stadiums and financial incentives for sportsball teams is already ridiculous, it should at least not be completely fraudulent.
There is another article on the front page today about how the right amount of fraud is not zero. Align the incentives and doping will decline, and enforcement becomes less critical.
> I do think that history has treated Mr. Armstrong unfairly for the essential act of his cheating. > To be sure, Mr. Armstrong brought much of his disparate treatment on himself. Perhaps history, but I think modernity has been far too kind to Mr. Armstrong. I'm floored that Lance Armstrong is still given a degree of celebrity and room as a public figure, and still more that he can make money off of that. That his ce…
For those interested in the Armstrong saga it's worth listening to his interview in the Peter Attia Drive podcast. For personal reasons that I won't go into here I still feel betrayed by his cheating and vindictive lying, but hearing about what has been doing since partially redeemed him in my eyes. https://peterattiamd.com/lancearmstrong/
Unpopular opinion but I really think that all competitions should be untested like WSM. As it currently stands, the competition in most sports is about who has the resources to best hide their PED use.
(Google first suggested Weston Super Mare, a UK semi-pro football club but I don’t think that’s right).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> That his celebrity and accolades were obtained fraudulently Important to remember that when they took Armstrong’s trophies away, the next person who hadn’t yet been caught doping finished 10th. During that era of cycling, 87% of top 10 finishers tested positive for doping at least once. https://www.businessinsider.com/lance-armstrong-doping-tour-... That doesn’t excuse his doping, of course. It just means that at t…
as the article touches on here, there's two things that Lance Armstrong deserves criticism for: one is being a cheater. the other is being a raging asshole who was outspoken against doping, published multiple books professing how clean he was and how all the doping rumours were just people out to get him, claimed the whole country of france was dishonest, accused his competitors of doping, accused other cyclists who…
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/212873/the-secret-r...
Cycling is such a strange sport. It's like Formula 1 for rich fitness enthusiasts. I recently bought an old high-end Look racing bike after taking up cycling for fitness, and I went down the Look, La Vie Claire, Bernard Tapie, Bernard Hinault, Lance Armstrong rabbit hole. Doping is just the surface of what must have been a money laundering cocaine fueled sex crazed decades long party.
You can't buy the engine for professional cyclists. Even though they were doping, people like Armstong are still individuals with insanely high VO2max levels, beyond anything you could achieve through training alone (i.e. you need genetic good luck too).
So I am not sure where you see the similarities with F1 ...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not only tested but samples archived to test later as drugs and assays become known to the testers. The amount of money our governments waste on stadiums and financial incentives for sportsball teams is already ridiculous, it should at least not be completely fraudulent.
If professional, or, for that matter supposedly amateur sports were not so subsidized and blown out of proportion, as well as having regulatory and antitrust exemptions, it is likely there would be a lot less money in it and therefore less incentive to trade one's health for fleeting money and fame. There is another article on the front page today about how the right amount of fraud is not zero. Align the incentives…