Stolen Valor - The Legacy of Lance Armstrong

Sport is rife with comments and comparisons to battle and war.  Brave heroes lining up to go into battle on the field in horrendous weather, injured bodies and the carnage afterwards often appears like a war scene as well.  Cycling is no different.  In fact most team sports lend themselves to the comparisons.  You have strategy, hours of training and practice and the eventual "battle" where you go to your physical limits in an effort to defeat the competition.  Cycling is brutal.  As I've written before here (Tough Man Competition), racing your bike isn't for the feint of heart and on the professional level the dedication and toughness is severe.  While no sport is anything like true war, it's always a glamorous way to envision and romanticize the sport.  Pro Cycling's early season racing takes part in the northern sections of France and Belgium while crossing former World War I and II battlefields such as the Forest of Arenberg.  The battles continue all year with the lieutenants sacrificing themselves for the generals in hopes of glory, maybe a medal for the battle in hopes of winning the war. Like in war, some take sport with the mindset of "winning at all costs."

Winning the war at all costs is no longer acceptable even in actual war.  What's known as the rules of war - The Geneva Convention - are signed treaties whereby countries will be judged post-war on how they treated civilians and acts during war.  Cycling's doping issues during the 1990's through today and the recent unearthing of the Lance Armstrong conspiracy shows the sport had its own "win at all costs" attitude for which it is now experiencing the United States Anti Doping Association's (USADA) version of the Nuremberg Trials.

STOLEN VALOR

For years, true heroes of war have been looked up to, memorialized and honored for often doing the unspeakable.  Being considered a hero is very alluring and to some cowards the twinkle of being thought of in such high regard is too hard to pass up.
  There is a website found at www.stolenvalor.com where you can help to "out" those that pretend to be war heroes.  I'm not a military geek myself and I wouldn't know which medals are legit or how to wear them correctly, but this site has examples of Fred's, Wanna-Be's and your basic tools assuming the identity of expert snipers clad in their dress uniforms and some with credentialed looking discharge papers.  War Veterans got tired of having these impostors taking glory from those who did fight and Congress has passed several versions of the "Stolen Valor Act" making it illegal to impersonate a war hero.  The problem with this law was it's violation of First Amendment rights; the free speech right that basically gives you the freedom to lie and say idiotic things, just not in court.  But the most recent version of the Stolen Valor Act was passed by Congress in 2012 which instead of making the lying illegal, now makes it a crime to say you are a war hero with the intent to make money off that lie.  The Act itself provides -

 Stolen Valor Act of 2012 - Amends the federal criminal code to rewrite provisions relating to fraudulent claims about military service to subject to a fine, imprisonment for not more than one year, or both an individual who, with intent to obtain money, property, or other tangible benefit, fraudulently holds himself or herself out to be a recipient of: -a Congressional Medal of Honor, -a distinguished-service cross, -a Navy cross, -an Air Force cross, -a silver star, -a Purple Heart, -a Combat Infantryman's Badge, -a Combat Action Badge, -a Combat Medical Badge, -a Combat Action Ribbon, -a Combat Action Medal, or - any replacement or duplicate medal for such medal as authorized by law.

The new Act will likely not be found unconstitutional as it no longer hinges on a first amendment right, but instead on criminal fraud and misrepresentation.

WAR ON CANCER
Lance Armstrong's well known charity, The LIVESTRONG Foundation, makes known its own comparison to war, the war on Cancer.  While I have an issue with the difference between "cancer awareness" and actual cancer curing, there is no doubt that LIVESTRONG is a force in the cancer world and the charity world as well.  In a LIVESTRONG Blog post on May 2, 2011 Greg Lee wrote that The LIVESTRONG Foundation raised over $400 million in revenues since inception in 1997.  He continues with:

The foundation generates its revenues from a variety of sources.  General giving from the public represents 34%, Fundraising Events (like the LIVESTRONG Challenge) generate 24%, Merchandise Sales 22%, and Cause Marketing and Business Development Initiatives generate 14%.  A few miscellaneous sources comprise the remaining 6%.

It's quite obvious the success of the LIVESTRONG Foundation is due to Lance's 7 Tour de France wins (now stripped of those titles), his amazing personal cancer story and his tenacity as a cyclist.  It's fair to say the success of The LIVESTRONG Foundation is solely due to the celebrity of Lance himself.  I'm a huge cycling fan, but even I will admit that cycling in the US is not a big deal.  Lance is a unique individual who dated Hollywood starlets, famous musicians and even hung out shirt-less with Matthew McConaughey.  Lance's stardom became like those that are simply known by their first name.  The one name wonders that dominate their respective professions and overlap into celebrity by virtue of the all encompassing interest; Prince, Michael, Lance, Madonna.

With the recent USADA investigation came a multitude of confessions of doping by former teammates of Lance and the subsequent confession of non-teammates such as the 1998 3rd place Tour finisher Bobby Julich.  Bobby confessed to doping some during 1996-1998 but claims he stopped after 1998 and raced clean the rest of his career.  A career that saw him get a Bronze Medal in the 2004 Athens Olympic games (now upgraded to a Silver with Tyler Hamilton's confession).  I saw it written that Julich's 17th place in the 2005 Tour is likely the top "clean" ride in that years edition, making it an impressive feat during an age of rampant EPO, testosterene and blood transfusion practice.  I'm sure there were others that rode clean during these sordid years and suffered to finish and compete.  What Lance did by his lying and cheating was to deprive the clean riders the glory and honor they worked so hard to achieve by stealing their spotlight.  It's said that simply winning a single stage of a grand tour will give you fame and notoriety the rest of your career and even long after you retire.  How many stolen stages, victories and countless dollars did Lance's drug induced racing take from others?

In U.S. v. Alvarez, the Supreme Court struck down the previous Stolen Valor Act as unconstitutional.  The Act was originally designed to "protect the reputation" of military decorations.  Those that fight and receive these medals should be allowed the honor and respect to show them off and to receive any possible monetary reward that is associated.  Lance went to battle and decided to win at all costs.  Lance's reward is well documented with millions of dollars in endorsements, contracts, winnings, speaking/appearance fees and a legacy of his War on Cancer by the creation of The LIVESTRONG Foundation.   Do the ends justify the means?  After all, it's only sport.

But all Lance's rewards are simply Stolen Valor.  Glory taken from the hands of those that raced fair, sacrificed their time with family to be on the road for the sport they loved along with millions in lost wages and notoriety with the help of a needle and some shady doctors.  Lance combed the battlefield during his days of racing and spoiled the reputation of the medals he fought to receive.  Medals intended for and honor deserved by others.