NeoGAF

Awesome Animals · 01:21 AM

Quote:

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is bringing doping charges against seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, questioning his victories in those storied cycling races.

Armstrong, who retired from cycling last year, could face a lifetime ban from the sport if he is found to have used performance-enhancing drugs.

The story was first reported Wednesday by the Washington Post.

The charges from USADA come just months after federal prosecutors closed a two-year criminal investigation of Armstrong without indicting him.

Armstrong maintained his innocence, saying: "I have never doped, and, unlike many of my accusers, I have competed as an endurance athlete for 25 years with no spike in performance, passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one."

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/us-an...rges-armstrong

I'd say this is a big deal. I'll be crushed if this turns out to be true.

ESPN: http://espn.go.com/olympics/cycling/...charged-doping

The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lance-...PaV_story.html

EDIT:

Originally Posted by OpinionatedCyborg:

ze details: http://online.wsj.com/public/resourc...arging0613.pdf

ClovingWestbrook · (06-13-2012, 09:51 PM)

Originally Posted by Awesome Animals:

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/us-an...rges-armstrong

oh shit

Baconsaurus Rex · (06-13-2012, 09:52 PM)

I prefer this thread

xbhaskarx · (06-13-2012, 09:52 PM)

shit just got real . gif

Clydefrog · (06-13-2012, 09:52 PM)

Originally Posted by Baconsaurus:

I prefer this thread

both were started at the same time

eerie

Count Dookkake · (06-13-2012, 09:52 PM)

Originally Posted by Baconsaurus:

I prefer this thread

This one was first.

bjaelke · (06-13-2012, 09:53 PM)

Originally Posted by Awesome Animals:

I'll be crushed if this turns out to be true.

Embrace yourself.

Originally Posted by Nemesis121:

Ban him from a sport he's retired from lol lol lol...

The ban includes management positions.

Nemesis121 · (06-13-2012, 09:53 PM)

Ban him from a sport he's retired from lol lol lol...

sfedai0 · (06-13-2012, 09:53 PM)

Truly nothing is sacred. I mean, tainting baseball, fine. But if Armstrong is found guilty, then magazine racks will be knocked over.

Nevasleep · (06-13-2012, 09:54 PM)

Well that's a surprise, I thought they were all doped up.

xbhaskarx · (06-13-2012, 09:55 PM)

What am I supposed to do with all these bracelets...

Awesome Animals · (06-13-2012, 09:55 PM)

I'm blaming that creep Floyd Landis.

Sye d'Burns · (06-13-2012, 09:55 PM)

Originally Posted by Nemesis121:

Ban him from a sport he's retired from lol lol lol...

The charges, reports the Post, could cost Armstrong his seven Tour de France titles.

Vandiger · (06-13-2012, 09:57 PM)

How much money is wasted on a pointless trial. 2 year investigation, so stupid.

sangreal · (06-13-2012, 09:57 PM)

Much more info in the original source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lance-...PaV_story.html

Dark Octave · (06-13-2012, 09:57 PM)

Quote:

"I have competed as an endurance athlete for 25 years with no spike in performance, passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one."

If this is true, Armstrong makes a solid argument and seems pretty confident.

I believe him.

EvilMario · (06-13-2012, 09:57 PM)

Originally Posted by Sye d'Burns:

The charges, reports the Post, could cost Armstrong his seven Tour de France titles.

Does he have to give all the sponsorship money back?

Awesome Animals · (06-13-2012, 09:58 PM)

Originally Posted by Dark Octave:

Armstrong makes a great argument and seems pretty confident.

I believe him.

I'll always believe him.

Slayven · (06-13-2012, 09:59 PM)

This shit is as retarded as the Bonds shit. Waste of money and time.

Eric C · 10:03 PM

Originally Posted by Nemesis121:

Ban him from a sport he's retired from lol lol lol...

yeah he's not facing criminal charges is he? So the worst that could happen is that he's banned from a sport he's already retired from.

I guess you could say it could ruin his reputation, but I'd argue that the original allegations and federal criminal investigation already did that.

Originally Posted by EvilMario:

Does he have to give all the sponsorship money back?

yeah does he have to give any money back?

Edit

Originally Posted by sangreal:

Much more info in the original source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lance-...PaV_story.html

Quote:

As a result of the charges, Armstrong has been immediately banned from competition in triathlons, a sport he took up after his retirement from cycling in 2011.

oh

Bombadil · (06-13-2012, 10:00 PM)

Fuck, please don't let this be true. The man is a hero. Don't let him be like Harvey Dent.

FairyD · (06-13-2012, 10:03 PM)

I don't see a problem with doping. Shit, let them all dope up. The best chemical/human wins in the end.

TheNatural · (06-13-2012, 10:04 PM)

Pete Rose II

shadyspace · (06-13-2012, 10:04 PM)

Sounds like some cooked up French bullshit to me.

Escape Goat · (06-13-2012, 10:05 PM)

Aren't they a little late?

vas_a_morir · (06-13-2012, 10:06 PM)

Of course he was cheating! Everybody else in the sport was, why wouldn't the guy winning 7 times in a year do it? If he was telling the truth, we shouldn't even consider steroids as a drug that gives a competitive advantage anymore. As clearly, the one CLEAN guy was dominating all the dirty guys.

ClovingWestbrook · (06-13-2012, 10:06 PM)

Originally Posted by Slayven:

This shit is as retarded as the Bonds shit. Waste of money and time.

Really? So the government would let you be on your marry way if your committed perjury?

ReturnOfTheRAT · (06-13-2012, 10:07 PM)

His story is still too good to be true. How could he beat all the other dopers after his prior sickness? I can no longer wrap my head around it.

Evlar · (06-13-2012, 10:07 PM)

Don't know whether he's guilty, but it's always been strange how dominant one man can be in a sport that, physically, should not support such vast outliers in capability. And yes, I know that Armstrong wasn't the first to put together a long winning streak on the Tour.

pelicansurf · (06-13-2012, 10:08 PM)

Originally Posted by ClovingSteam:

Really? So the government would let you be on your marry way if your committed perjury?

The fact that the government intervened to question him about his steroid use is pretty ludicrous.

ezrarh · (06-13-2012, 10:08 PM)

My take on this - even if he was cheating, so did many others in the league and he still won 7 Tour de Frances.

esquire · (06-13-2012, 10:09 PM)

I'm 99% sure he's guilty of doping. There's just too much evidence to fully exonerate him of any wrongdoing.

ClovingWestbrook · (06-13-2012, 10:09 PM)

Originally Posted by pelicansurf:

The fact that the government intervened to question him about his steroid use is pretty ludicrous.

Not in the case of Roger Clemens they didn't. Roger volunteered to go to Congress and due to his sheer stupidity/ ego, never thought he'd be caught.

Slayven · (06-13-2012, 10:09 PM)

Originally Posted by ClovingSteam:

Really? So the government would let you be on your marry way if your committed perjury?

Where did he lie?

kirblar · (06-13-2012, 10:09 PM)

Originally Posted by vas_a_morir:

Of course he was cheating! Everybody else in the sport was, why wouldn't the guy winning 7 times in a year do it? If he was telling the truth, we shouldn't even consider steroids as a drug that gives a competitive advantage anymore. As clearly, the one CLEAN guy was dominating all the dirty guys.

Yeah, this is basically it. Everyone was doing it. You see this in MMA now too- all these guys needing "TRT" because at one point everyone was on roids, and needed to be in order to compete with all the other guys on roids.

Rodney McKay · (06-13-2012, 10:10 PM)

Originally Posted by ReturnOfTheRAT:

His story is still too good to be true. How could he beat all the other dopers after his prior sickness? I can no longer wrap my head around it.

I was under the impression that his body is able to process oxygen way better than normal athletes, something to do with his heart or lungs or something.

Wiseblade · (06-13-2012, 10:11 PM)

Hasn't he been accused of performace enchancing drug use before? I hope it's not true, it'd be a bad day for sport if it was.

Originally Posted by ezrarh:

My take on this - even if he was cheating, so did many others in the league and he still won 7 Tour de Frances.

"Everyone was doing it!" is never a legitimate excuse.

Kung Fu Jedi · (06-13-2012, 10:12 PM)

The charges also bar him from competing in triathlons, which he has been ripping up recently. He had hoped to compete in the Ironman Championships in Kona this year.

Atrus · (06-13-2012, 10:12 PM)

Armstrong has been accused by numerous international agencies in multiple countries over many, many years and none of them have ever been substantiated.

Frankly, it's getting old.

bjaelke · (06-13-2012, 10:12 PM)

Originally Posted by ezrarh:

My take on this - even if he was cheating, so did many others in the league and he still won 7 Tour de Frances.

He'd never have won any titles if he had ridden for another team.

ClovingWestbrook · (06-13-2012, 10:12 PM)

Originally Posted by Slayven:

Where did he lie?

Bonds? Bonds stated that he 'didn't know' that what he took was steroids. There was reason to believe he lied and had Greg Anderson testified the verdict may have been quite different. If the government had reason to believe Bonds lied on the stand then they have a duty to prosecute him with perjury and let a jury decide based on the evidence. Same with Clemens.

mavs · (06-13-2012, 10:15 PM)

Originally Posted by esquire:

I'm 99% sure he's guilty of doping. There's just too much evidence to fully exonerate him of any wrongdoing.

.

If it was related to his treatment I don't know if that can be an excuse.

Slayven · (06-13-2012, 10:15 PM)

Originally Posted by ClovingSteam:

Bonds? Bonds stated that he 'didn't know' that what he took was steroids. There was reason to believe he lied and had Greg Anderson testified the verdict may have been quite different. If the government had reason to believe Bonds lied on the stand then they have a duty to prosecute him with perjury and let a jury decide based on the evidence. Same with Clemens.

Oh you were talking about Bonds.

ClovingWestbrook · (06-13-2012, 10:18 PM)

Originally Posted by Slayven:

Oh you were talking about Bonds.

Both Bonds and Clemens. It was in response to the statement that this like Bonds was a waste of tax payer money.

sankt-Antonio · (06-13-2012, 10:18 PM)

He was the one with enough money to buy custom tailored drugs, therefore he was never cought. Given the number of possible chemical combinations he most likley will never be tested positiv, even retrospectively

Volimar · (06-13-2012, 10:21 PM)

I'm not a cycling enthusiast, but I have followed his life and career. Always seemed like a decent guy. Hope he comes out on top.

Those investigators are nut if you ask me.

ezrarh · (06-13-2012, 10:21 PM)

Originally Posted by Wiseblade:

"Everyone was doing it!" is never a legitimate excuse.

Of course it isn't. It's just my opinion of him won't change much. It'll ruin other people's perception of him, but in a sport ripe with doping, it wouldn't be shocking to me.

Hari Seldon · (06-13-2012, 10:25 PM)

Originally Posted by mavs:

.

If it was related to his treatment I don't know if that can be an excuse.

What? If some cancer treatment somehow trickles down to some doping thing then that should be perfectly legal as long as some credible cancer doctor can testify that it is a legit treatment. He had fucking cancer man, if some other biker wants to go skinny dipping off of fukoshima to get cancer in order to dope then let him.

Slayven · (06-13-2012, 10:30 PM)

Originally Posted by ClovingSteam:

Both Bonds and Clemens. It was in response to the statement that this like Bonds was a waste of tax payer money.

I still fill in the grand scheme of things it was. Unless people are dropping like flies or they ain't funding terrorism, let the leagues handle it.

If they really want to help sports look into ticket prices, Head injuries, and stupid blackout rules.

Goldrusher · (06-13-2012, 10:32 PM)

Quote:

Lance Armstrong Responds to USADA Allegation

AUSTIN, TX -- June 13, 2012 -- I have been notified that USADA, an organization largely funded by taxpayer dollars but governed only by self-written rules, intends to again dredge up discredited allegations dating back more than 16 years to prevent me from competing as a triathlete and try and strip me of the seven Tour de France victories I earned. These are the very same charges and the same witnesses that the Justice Department chose not to pursue after a two-year investigation. These charges are baseless, motivated by spite and advanced through testimony bought and paid for by promises of anonymity and immunity. Although USADA alleges a wide-ranging conspiracy extended over more than 16 years, I am the only athlete it has chosen to charge. USADA’s malice, its methods, its star-chamber practices, and its decision to punish first and adjudicate later all are at odds with our ideals of fairness and fair play.

I have never doped, and, unlike many of my accusers, I have competed as an endurance athlete for 25 years with no spike in performance, passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one. That USADA ignores this fundamental distinction and charges me instead of the admitted dopers says far more about USADA, its lack of fairness and this vendetta than it does about my guilt or innocence.

http://lancearmstrong.com/news-event...ada-allegation