Athletes and drugs
The French sports daily newspaper "L'Equipe" ran reports suggesting that Lance Armstrong took performance enhancing drugs during his first Tour de France win.
Now, Armstrong happens to be one of the most legendary athletes ever. Battling testicular cancer and coming back to win the Tour de France for a record 7 times.
The tests were done with samples taken during that year. During that time, EPO could not be detected but they kept the samples to conduct experiments to devise a way to detect that performance enhancing substance (EPO). The samples were not labeled with names but with serial numbers. And some how the newspaper reported that they have credible proof that the tainted sample belonged to Armstrong.
Armstrong wrote on his website. "I will simply restate what I have said many times: I have never taken performance-enhancing drugs."
I believe Armstrong.
No test is perfect. I'm sure there's always some degree of inaccuracy. Now instead of jumping to such conclusions, the lab should be absolutely certain. Anyway since the samples were not labeled properly and the fact the samples were taken 6-7 years ago, man-made errors are bound to be present. This sounds like French sour grapes, attacking the American who has dominated the French event for years.
Drug allegations are very serious, especially for athletes. It's almost like a litigation of malpractice for a doctor. Both are career breaking allegations. No test is perfect, there's bound to be errors. How can labs ensure that the margin of error is minimal?
It's easy to say the test is positive, but without considering the possibility of lab error, the damage to the athlete is huge. Just take Marion Jones for example. She's been hit by drug allegations but never tested positive before. Now her career has taken a serious blow.
So I believe Armstrong. I believe in the integrity of a man who has managed to show the world that determination can create miracles.
"To all the cynics, I'm sorry for you. I'm sorry you can't believe in miracles." -Lance Armstrong-
Wei Qiang converses @ 14:06
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