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Lance Armstrong Doesn't Think Steroids and Doping Should Be Legalized in Sports
Lance Armstrong was stripped of seven Tour de France championships due to his use of steroids and EPO. His life would have been a lot easier and he would have been much wealthier if performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) had been permitted in cycling during his career. However, when asked about proposals to “legalize” doping in sports, Armstrong insisted it would be a “really bad idea”.
You may think that an athlete who was “disgraced” by a major doping scandal would be more likely than other athletes to support the “legalization” of steroids and doping in sport. This is not true with Armstrong. In an interview with The Times (UK), Armstrong rejected any any call to allow doping in sport due to his belief that it would introduce an unacceptable risk to athletes.
“That would be a really bad idea,” Armstrong said. “You’d have people taking tremendous risks.”
Armstrong has always insisted that his health was an important consideration when he was a professional cyclist using EPO, testosterone and blood transfusions. He did not feel he took any unacceptable risks and called his doping “conservative” especially when compared to other athletes.
In particular, Armstrong cited American football as a sport where the rampant use of anabolic steroids, human growth hormone and other PEDs create a situation of unacceptable risk. The concern hits close to home for Armstrong since his teenage son has become involved in American football.
“I have a 16-year old son. He’s 6ft 3in, 230lb, and really good at American football,” Armstrong said.. “I know what goes on in that sport and I wouldn’t want him in that situation.”
Armstrong suggested the risks of doping in sports like American football far outweighs the risks of doping cycling in cycling. And the reason PED use in American football is so dangerous is due to the refusal of the National Football League (NFL) to accept drug testing by an independent anti-doping organization like the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). The NFL recognizes that cracking down of steroid use would damage its revenue stream.
“We now know all these guys operate the same,” Armstrong said. “They’re sitting on this stuff thinking, ‘If we nuke this, our sport is burnt to the ground.’ So they don’t want to look too hard.”
“If the NFL said, ‘We want to use USADA. USADA's going to come and do our testing,’ they would have known what happened to me, what happened to my sport. The franchise owners would go, ‘No way, you’re not messing with our equity.’ That’s what they’d say.”
“Maybe people are at the point now where if they follow any world sport, they realize that what they were sold is just not true.”
Armstrong believed the less stringent testing in the NFL does a disservice to the players if not the profits for the NFL and its owners. Armstrong surprisingly seemed to support the stepped up testing in the sport of cycling for the benefit of athletes' health. Of course, it has become much easier to support cycling's anti-doping efforts now that he is permanently on the sidelines with no hope of competing again.
Lance Armstrong was stripped of seven Tour de France championships due to his use of steroids and EPO. His life would have been a lot easier and he would have been much wealthier if performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) had been permitted in cycling during his career. However, when asked about proposals to “legalize” doping in sports, Armstrong insisted it would be a “really bad idea”.
You may think that an athlete who was “disgraced” by a major doping scandal would be more likely than other athletes to support the “legalization” of steroids and doping in sport. This is not true with Armstrong. In an interview with The Times (UK), Armstrong rejected any any call to allow doping in sport due to his belief that it would introduce an unacceptable risk to athletes.
“That would be a really bad idea,” Armstrong said. “You’d have people taking tremendous risks.”
Armstrong has always insisted that his health was an important consideration when he was a professional cyclist using EPO, testosterone and blood transfusions. He did not feel he took any unacceptable risks and called his doping “conservative” especially when compared to other athletes.
In particular, Armstrong cited American football as a sport where the rampant use of anabolic steroids, human growth hormone and other PEDs create a situation of unacceptable risk. The concern hits close to home for Armstrong since his teenage son has become involved in American football.
“I have a 16-year old son. He’s 6ft 3in, 230lb, and really good at American football,” Armstrong said.. “I know what goes on in that sport and I wouldn’t want him in that situation.”
Armstrong suggested the risks of doping in sports like American football far outweighs the risks of doping cycling in cycling. And the reason PED use in American football is so dangerous is due to the refusal of the National Football League (NFL) to accept drug testing by an independent anti-doping organization like the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). The NFL recognizes that cracking down of steroid use would damage its revenue stream.
“We now know all these guys operate the same,” Armstrong said. “They’re sitting on this stuff thinking, ‘If we nuke this, our sport is burnt to the ground.’ So they don’t want to look too hard.”
“If the NFL said, ‘We want to use USADA. USADA's going to come and do our testing,’ they would have known what happened to me, what happened to my sport. The franchise owners would go, ‘No way, you’re not messing with our equity.’ That’s what they’d say.”
“Maybe people are at the point now where if they follow any world sport, they realize that what they were sold is just not true.”
Armstrong believed the less stringent testing in the NFL does a disservice to the players if not the profits for the NFL and its owners. Armstrong surprisingly seemed to support the stepped up testing in the sport of cycling for the benefit of athletes' health. Of course, it has become much easier to support cycling's anti-doping efforts now that he is permanently on the sidelines with no hope of competing again.
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