by xrodolfox » Fri Jan 18, 2013 10:49 am
It was obvious to me that Lance was doping, as was just about every other top cyclist. Looking through [url=this list]this list[/url] verifies my suspicions.
Thus, I personally am not at all disappointed or surprised. Frankly, I hope that Lance has the ability to compete in amateur races again. I'd love to race Lance in a triathlon, or see him race. I hope they lift the ban on his racing, as he can't even enter into any competition with Olympic ties. That means no marathons, no triathlons, no local 5k races, no anything.
That said, I think that cleaning up the future of cycling is important, and that Lance helps them clean it up. I do think that his wins should be officially stripped from him, and that he should be required to do some reparations, especially to those athletes he "sent down the river" like Landis.
The fans... eh. I don't really care if folks are disappointed. Whomever holds an athlete as a hero for being an athlete is a fool and deserves to be constantly disappointed. The media loves to make heroes and villains out of athletes, but that's just marketing, and society is eager to make athletes into heroes. A good story doesn't mean that the athlete is a saint or an ethicist, as much as athletes are eager to embrace that for the benjamins.
Instead of athletes as heroes, we should be looking towards those folks with unexceptional skill that are exceedingly ethical as heroes; those that may not be as beautiful or sexy but that work hard and fight the good fight as heroes rather than folks who get paid to compete as heroes.
"The worker has the right to leave his boss, but can she do it? And if she does quit him, is it in order to lead a free life; where she will have no master but herself? No, she leaves to sell herself to another employer. She's driven by the same hunger. Thus the worker's liberty is only a theoretical freedom, lacking any means of realization; an utter falsehood."
-Bakunin
