Lance Edward Armstrong is an American former professional road racing cyclist. Armstrong is the 1993 professional world champion, and won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005. However, in 2012, he was banned from sanctioned Olympic sports for life as a result of long-term doping offenses. As part of those sanctions, all results going back to August 1998, including his seven Tour wins, were voided.
At age 16, Armstrong began competing as a triathlete and was a national sprint-course triathlon champion in 1989 and 1990. In 1992, Armstrong began his career as a professional cyclist with the Motorola team. He had notable success between 1993 and 1996, including stage 8 of the Tour de France and the World Championship in 1993, the Clásica de San Sebastián in 1995, Tour DuPont in 1995 and 1996, and a handful of stage victories in Europe, including stage 18 of the 1995 Tour de France.
In 1996, he was diagnosed with a potentially fatal metastatic testicular cancer. After his recovery, he founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation to assist other cancer survivors.
Returning to cycling in 1998, he was a member of the US Postal/Discovery team between 1998 and 2005, when he won his Tour de France titles, as well as a bronze medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics. Armstrong retired from racing at the end of the 2005 Tour de France, but returned to competitive cycling with the Astana team in January 2009, finishing third in the 2009 Tour de France later that year. Between 2010 and 2011, he raced with Team Radio Shack, the UCI ProTeam he helped found. He retired for a second time in 2011.
Armstrong had been the subject of doping allegations ever since winning the 1999 Tour de France. In 2012, a United States Anti-Doping Agency investigation concluded that Armstrong had used performance-enhancing drugs over the course of his career and named him as the ringleader of "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen." Armstrong chose not to contest the charges, citing the potential toll on his family. As a result, he received a lifetime ban from all sports that follow the World Anti-Doping Code—effectively ending his competitive career. He was also stripped of all of his achievements from August 1998 onward, including his seven Tour de France titles. The Union Cycliste Internationale upheld USADA's decision and decided that his stripped wins would not be allocated to other riders. Armstrong chose not to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. In a 2013 interview, Armstrong confessed that some of the allegations were true. He has declined to testify about the full extent of his use of the drugs. In the aftermath of his fall from grace, a CNN article wrote that "The epic downfall of cycling's star, once an idolized icon of millions around the globe, stands out in the history of professional sports."
“A life spent defensively, worried, is a life wasted.”
Source: Every Second Counts (2003), p. 21
Context: A life spent defensively, worried, is a life wasted.
You know when I need to die? When I'm done living. When I can't walk, can't eat, can't see, when I'm a crotchety old bastard, mad at the world. Then I can die.
Source: It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life
“If there was a god, I'd still have both nuts.”
ET Magazine (2004) [citation needed] This needs further date citation, as the article designated has not yet been located.
Source: It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life
As quoted in Forbes Magazine (3 December 2001)
Context: Without cancer, I never would have won a single Tour de France. Cancer taught me a plan for more purposeful living, and that in turn taught me how to train and to win more purposefully. It taught me that pain has a reason, and that sometimes the experience of losing things — whether health or a car or an old sense of self — has its own value in the scheme of life. Pain and loss are great enhancers.
Source: Every Second Counts (2003), p. 21
Source: It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life (2000), p. 113
Context: I wished hard, but I didn't pray. I had developed a certain distrust of organized religion growing up, but I felt I had the capacity to be a spiritual person, and to hold some fervent beliefs. Quite simply, I believed I had a responsiblity to be a good person, and that meant fair, honest, hardworking, and honorable. If I did that, if I was good to my family, true to my friends, if I gave back to my community or to some cause, if I wasn't a liar, a cheat, or a thief, then I believed that should be enough. At the end of the day, if there was indeed some Body or presence standing there to judge me, I hoped I would be judged on whether I had lived a true life, not on whether I believed in a certain book, or whether I'd been baptized. If there was indeed a God at the end of my days, I hoped he didn't say, "But you were never a Christian, so you're going the other way from heaven." If so, I was going to reply, "You know what? You're right. Fine."
“Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.”
Source: Every Second Counts
Source: Every Second Counts (2003), p. 157
Context: The Tour (de France) is essentially a math problem, a 2,000-mile race over three weeks that's sometimes won by a margin of a minute or less. How do you propel yourself through space on a bicycle, sometimes steeply uphill, at a speed sustainable for three weeks? Every second counts.
Farewell speech at the Champs-Élysées podium, after winning his seventh Tour de France, quoted in "Paris salutes its American hero" by Caroline Wyatt in BBC News (24 July 2005) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/europe/4713283.stm
Context: Finally, the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics: I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. 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. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets — this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it. So Vive le Tour forever!
Source: It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life (2000), p. 1
Context: I want to die at a hundred years old with an American flag on my back and the star of Texas on my helmet, after screaming down an Alpine descent on a bicycle at 75 miles per hour. I want to cross one last finish line as my wife and my ten children applaud, and then I want to lie down in a field of those famous French sunflowers and gracefully expire, the perfect contradiction to my once anticipated poignant early demise.
Source: It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life (2000), p. 113
Context: I wished hard, but I didn't pray. I had developed a certain distrust of organized religion growing up, but I felt I had the capacity to be a spiritual person, and to hold some fervent beliefs. Quite simply, I believed I had a responsiblity to be a good person, and that meant fair, honest, hardworking, and honorable. If I did that, if I was good to my family, true to my friends, if I gave back to my community or to some cause, if I wasn't a liar, a cheat, or a thief, then I believed that should be enough. At the end of the day, if there was indeed some Body or presence standing there to judge me, I hoped I would be judged on whether I had lived a true life, not on whether I believed in a certain book, or whether I'd been baptized. If there was indeed a God at the end of my days, I hoped he didn't say, "But you were never a Christian, so you're going the other way from heaven." If so, I was going to reply, "You know what? You're right. Fine."
Press conference (8 October 1996)
Context: I want to finish by saying that I intend to be an avid spokesperson for testicular cancer once I have beaten the disease... I want this to be a positive experience and I want to take this opportunity to help others who might someday suffer from the same circumstance I face today.
Farewell speech at the Champs-Élysées podium, after winning his seventh Tour de France, quoted in "Paris salutes its American hero" by Caroline Wyatt in BBC News (24 July 2005) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/europe/4713283.stm
Context: Finally, the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics: I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. 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. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets — this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it. So Vive le Tour forever!
“No one trains like me. No one rides like me. This jersey's mine.”
On the team bus, after winning his fifth Tour de France in 2003, as quoted in "On your marks, get set … go!" in The Guardian by William Fotheringham in The Guardian (30 June 2007) http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/jun/30/featuresreviews.guardianreview7
Context: No one trains like me. No one rides like me. This jersey's mine. I live for this jersey. It's my life. No one's taking it away from me. This fucking jersey's mine.
As quoted in "10 questions for Lance Armstrong" by Bill Saporito in TIME magazine (28 September 2003) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1005777,00.html
Context: I'm not happy if I'm not doing some physical suffering, like going out on a bike ride or running. First, it's good for you. No. 2, it sort of clears my mind on a daily basis. And it's a job. My job is to suffer. I make the suffering in training hard so that the races are not full of suffering.
“Without cancer, I never would have won a single Tour de France.”
As quoted in Forbes Magazine (3 December 2001)
Context: Without cancer, I never would have won a single Tour de France. Cancer taught me a plan for more purposeful living, and that in turn taught me how to train and to win more purposefully. It taught me that pain has a reason, and that sometimes the experience of losing things — whether health or a car or an old sense of self — has its own value in the scheme of life. Pain and loss are great enhancers.
Source: It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life (2000), p. 267
Context: Anything is possible. You can be told you have a 90-percent chance or a 50-percent chance or a 1-percent chance, but you have to believe, and you have to fight. By fight I mean arm yourself with all the available information, get second opinions, third opinions, and fourth opinions. Understand what has invaded your body, and what the possible cures are. It's another fact of cancer that the more informed and empowered patient has a better chance of long-term survival. What if I had lost? What if I relapsed and the cancer came back? I still believe I would have gained something in the struggle, because in what time I had left I would have been a more complete, compassionate, and intelligent man, and therefore more alive.
Source: It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life (2000), p. 267
Context: Anything is possible. You can be told you have a 90-percent chance or a 50-percent chance or a 1-percent chance, but you have to believe, and you have to fight. By fight I mean arm yourself with all the available information, get second opinions, third opinions, and fourth opinions. Understand what has invaded your body, and what the possible cures are. It's another fact of cancer that the more informed and empowered patient has a better chance of long-term survival. What if I had lost? What if I relapsed and the cancer came back? I still believe I would have gained something in the struggle, because in what time I had left I would have been a more complete, compassionate, and intelligent man, and therefore more alive.
As quoted in "King of the Hill" by Kelli Anderson in Sports Illustrated (5 August 2002) http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/2002/sportsman/flashbacks/lance/king_of_the_hill
Source: It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life
“What is stronger, fear or hope?”
Source: It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life
"Back in the Saddle - An Essay by Lance Armstrong", as quoted in The Book of Action (2006) by Jeramy L. Patrick and Justin L. Helms, p. 68
Source: Armstrong, Lance. It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. New York: Berkley Books, 2001
“Hope that is the only antidote to fear.”
Source: It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life
Exchange with Floyd Landis, at Stage 17 of the Tour de France as reported in "Score another for Armstrong" in VeloNews (22 July 2004) http://velonews.com/article/6638
“One of the redeeming things about being an athlete is redefining what is humanly possible.”
As quoted in "What's Possible" in Fast Company (19 December 2007) http://www.fastcompany.com/articles/2001/04/al0401.html
Unsourced variant: Being a champion is redefining what's humanly possible.
“I'm a flawed character… I viewed this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times.”
Lance Armstrong Admits to Doping, 'One Big Lie' http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323468604578248582288523660.html, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, January 18, 2013.
“All their players tested positive… for being assholes.”
About the French 2006 FIFA World Cup team during his speech at the ESPY Awards, as quoted in "Armstrong accuses France World Cup team of being 'assholes'" in The Guardian (16 July 2006) http://observer.guardian.co.uk/sport/story/0,,1821547,00.html; he later commented on his use of profanity: "If they'd lived with me and heard me at home, they'd know it was a step down.."
“Jake, why are you sitting in the front? I thought you liked it in the rear.”
On stage comment to Jake Gyllenhaal, who has been recently nominated for an Oscar for Brokeback Mountain, at the ESPY Awards (16 July 2006)
As quoted in response to the comment "For a miracle man, you're not very religious", in "10 questions for Lance Armstrong" by Bill Saporito in TIME magazine (28 September 2003)
Announcing that he had been diagnosed with testicular cancer in a press conference (8 October 1996) http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/results/archives/oct96/lance.html
As quoted in "Score another for Armstrong" in VeloNews (22 July 2004)
As quoted in "King of the Hill" by Kelli Anderson in Sports Illustrated (5 August 2002)
