Lance Armstrong

This week, Lance Armstrong admitted to doping and lying about it. The confession came in an interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Armstrong has joined the swelling numbers of athletes who have recently admitted to cheating in order to help them achieve impressive statistics, victories, honors, accolades and the multi-million dollar endorsements that usually come with them. Armstrong successfully eluded monitoring agencies and their testing methods for years. After retiring, Armstrong felt the need to come clean about the, "one big lie that I repeated a lot of times."

The success that Armstrong enjoyed was not without it cost, which of course did not befall Armstrong but the countless interlopers and bystanders who had the audacity to question his tactics and means, including suing or threatening to sue people if he felt his secret was in danger of being exposed.

Since Armstrong's confession, the sports world has responded with considerable backlash. People all over have called him names I am not going to write here.

Cheating is as old as the games where the cheating is taking place. There are always different names for them: performance enhancement, looking for an advantage. Some feel it's poor sportsmanship. Others think it's legal until someone gets caught. Red Auerbach was notorious for turning off the hot water in the visitor's locker room. The visitor's locker room was too small and cramped. Auerbach did it as means of intimidation and getting an advantage. Today, there would be grievances filed with the players' union.

Cheating means something wasn't on the up and up. The game was tarnished. The record is not legit. The player still has the money and, except in the NCAA, the team still has the championship.
So what. What is it the fans have lost by knowing Lance Armstrong cheated. What was so valuable and dear that was invested by the fans by watching a race or a game. How do they feel they have been cheated? What have they lost?

Nothing. Lance Armstrong was stripped of his Tour de France titles and the bronze medal he won in the 2000 Olympics. So what? The guy who won fourth now gets a bronze for something that happened over 10 years ago?

Lance Armstrong made himself look foolish by denying what people suspected all along. Is he going to have to give back the millions of dollars he got in endorsements? Will there be fines to be paid to the Olympics, Livestrong, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and the other teams and organizations he lied to? Probably not. He will fade back into his private life with his millions of dollars. He will move on with his life while countless other people will shake their heads and act as if Lance Armstrong owes them something because he cheated and lied. He humiliated himself. Hopefully that will be enough of a lesson before the next person thinks about cheating.