Amused to see those Sunday School lessons kicking in 40 odd years or so, as the line popped into my mind as I happed to flick past a discussion on Hardball (an American current affairs TV show) on Lance Armstrong - for what shall it profit a man to gain the world but lose his soul...
I had half-followed the hoo-ha of the doping allegations and had hoped that it wasn't true - that it was possible to be wonderfully fit and focussed and it was possible to win a gruelling race like the Tour de France seven times! Sadly it turns out that it doesn't seem possible without 'extra' performance-enhancing drugs. And I've heard the argument that if an athelete chooses to use such drugs which could possibly have side-effects later -- then surely that's his choice. I mean did the original organisers of the Olympics really mean for people to spend a good proportion of their day 'training' for years and now using the science of kinetics for maximum performance? I'm sure it started out as a 'fun' thing between Zeus the butcher and Apollo the farmer seeing who could reach to the end of the street first.
But back to Lance - it intrigued me why he chose this moment in time to make a public confession after denying it strenuously to the point of Lawsuits. And now opening himself up to new Lawsuits - he is living in the most ligitious nation in the World- though I can't see the logic of a sponsor clawing back monies given to support the US Team in return for publicity, as I'm sure a goodly proportion of people tuned in to see and support Lance Armstrong in the midst of doping allegations. Of course being American, he only has to sign a book deal to make a couple of million but having young children I wondered what you tell/teach them - do you destroy their little worlds by breaking the image of a safe reliable world?
All those people he sued (successfully) should be lining up to get punitive damages from this fraud.
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