Lance Armstrong is the 7 time winner of the Tour de France and a cancer survivor. He has an idyllic brand that is moving on despite recent and ongoing allegations he used performance enhancing drugs. Sponsors Anheuser-Busch and Nike are standing by their man, his foundation will raise over $50 million for cancer research and he has a flock of cancer survivors who follow him like a deity. With a federal investigation looming overhead it is possible this brand will get tested more as additional information becomes available to the public. At some point, Lance will have to defend himself more aggressively or people will just assume the allegations are true. How he defends himself will make all the difference to his legacy. He needs a knock out punch defense that irrefutably puts to rest the question of whether he cheated at the sport that made him a multi-millionaire.
For me, I am interested in hearing about how he passed so many drug tests. Can the drugs he was allegedly using be masked? Were failed results disregarded by the sport? Or did he simply not take any drugs and passed all the tests? Time will tell but I have to believe that without a frontal assault of denial his brand will be degraded and millions of cancer survivors will have to find another leader, dollars will dry up and people will die. Yes, people will die. Someone won’t receive the benefit of donated dollars to research through new drugs or therapies. Someone else won’t have the fighting attitude needed to battle the disease if their leader becomes diminutive and muted. What an incredible amount of pressure Armstrong must feel to defend himself. It must be overwhelming, or is it?
If it is overwhelming then he must be guilty of cheating as described by his teammates…..some of whom are cheaters themselves. Talk about a credibility gap. Somehow used car salesman and Tiger Woods are looking real good here.
If it is not an overwhelming feeling of burden then he is clearly not guilty of cheating and will prove to the world he has done nothing wrong.
The question is: why the wait? It has been over 10 years since the allegations started. Lance continues to get tested and passes every time, or almost every time according to some. He says he doesn’t cheat and we believe him until the next allegation is made. The issue is that he has not proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he isn’t a doper. The sport lacks credibility and the testing isn’t fool proof so the ball is in Lance’s court to come up with something that proves his innocence. He has had a lot of time to think about it, plan and execute but it just hasn’t worked. Now that the Fed’s are after him some feel the truth will come out. These are the same guys who haven’t put a Wall Street banker in jail since the financial crisis started so I have no hope they will get to the bottom of this either.
In the end the burden is on Lance to prove his innocence soon. Waiting is tantamount to admitting guilt. I wonder what he is doing, thinking and planning?It is clear to me that the Peloton has lost it way as one by one riders drop off and let a lone soul find his own way. If Lance is guilty it will end the longest hoax in recent sports history and more importantly cancer victims will lose hope and others will die. My best, Chris
I have been fortunate in my career and have had many rewarding experiences. After helping start, grow and sell a successful technology company (Albridge Solutions) I decided to take some time off to be with my family. I then became involved in the fight of my life as my beautiful and wonderful sister, Karen Farber Swanson, fought cancer for a year eventually losing the battle in 2009. The experience taught me much about life and how you spend your time. I returned to work with Princeton Financial Systems as the Chief Marketing Officer to help grow the business by managing Marketing and Business Development for them worldwide. Recently, I launched the Karen Farber Swanson Memorial Fund which will award money to gifted and needy young people Karen cared so much about.
My best, Chris
http://www.linkedin.com/in/christianjfarber
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