Tour De Force

The USADA finally released their report on Lance Armstrong yesterday. A dozen witnesses and hundreds of pages of evidence suggests two things. 1) The entire sport (no hyperbole here) is so corrupt with drug use and illegal enhancements that it really should cease to exist. 2) Lance Armstrong was just as guilty as everyone else.

I know it begs the question, "If EVERYONE (literally EVERYONE -read the report.) from that era was cheating, was Lance singled out just because he won?"

Could anyone, however, tell me WHY the USADA wasted tens of millions of tax payer's dollars on this investigation (and subsequent report) when they are not a governing agency for the sport AND are not seeking criminal charges against anyone involved including Lance? What exactly was their interest? Possible long-term health risks studies that might have resulted from this activity were strangely MISSING from the report and were ignored completely. You know, the part that would give us a reason for USADA involvement.

And do I TRUST the findings of a group that had no real reason to be investigating this sport in the first place? What WAS their motivation? Were they merely curious?

Enquiring minds want to know...

Just for the record. I don't believe anyone should cheat to win. But if everybody is cheating as best as they can, is anybody really "cheating" or are you just doing what the sport (literally) demands.

I would have gotten what was being done here if it was the SPORT that was being indicted and not the individuals.

I feel the same way about steroid use and HGH use in sports like baseball. IF the environment exists where players feel they need to take drugs to compete on a fair playing field, then it's the sport that must police that environment. Once guidelines and testing are set up, players can be held accountable, but if the environment and conditions set up by the sport itself are responsible for the questionable activities, it's the environment that must change first. Confidential preliminary studies should never have included players names. Those names should never have been stored on record.

AFTER the new environment is set up, players/participants can and should be named. BUT the sport must clean itself up FIRST. This didn't happen in baseball and it didn't just happen with World Class Cycling.

And that's why I hate how all of this keeps going down. There's a right way to take care of the problem and there's a wrong way. So far, it's been the wrong way that's been coming out on top. It's no wonder players are hesitant to say anything in other sports. NOTHING is ever confidential. (Okay, THAT'S hyperbole, but you get the idea.)

These studies become witch hunts against individuals rather than helpful ways to clean up dirty sports. Let's keep the priorities straight.