Lance Armstrong Fortune

Short introduction

Lance Armstrong never made a secret of being an extreme man. During his active time as a cyclist, he achieved an unprecedented rise from being seriously ill with cancer to becoming a seven-time serial winner of the Tour de France.

After his career, Armstrong became the protagonist of an unprecedented doping scandal that cost him all seven Tour de France titles and led to his public branding as a fraud.

Armstrong also had to pay tribute to the doping scandal financially. Once estimated at 110 million euros, he can still call himself over 45 million despite all the fines.

Early life

Lance Armstrong was born in 1971 in a suburb of Dallas. He was only two years old when his father left the family. After the separation, Lance’s mother married his future adoptive father Terry Armstrong, who gave him a hard, sometimes violent upbringing. Looking for a way to escape his stepfather’s bullying, Lance Armstrong discovered cycling for himself.

In 1984 Armstrong tried for the first time as a triathlete at the age of 13. In 1987 he took part in his first bike race. In 1988 he had his first success when he took third place in the triathlon short distance at the national championship. This year he was also invited to the training camp of the junior national cycling team.

In 1989 and 1990 he was then celebrated as a national champion on the triathlon sprint distance. In 1991, the national championship in road racing for amateurs followed. A year later, Armstrong was 14th in the road race at the Barcelona Olympics.

Career

In 1992 Lance Armstrong signed his first professional contract with the Motorola team. A year later, he took part in the Tour de France for the first time and immediately won his first stage. However, he had to stop the tour prematurely for health reasons. In the same year he became the youngest professional road world champion of all time in Oslo.

Armstrong finished the Tour de France for the first time in 1995 and won another stage. In this way, he earned a reputation as an expert in one-day races. However, only a few of them believed he could win the Tour de France, especially since he lost too much time on mountain stages.

1996 became the first major turning point in Armstrong’s biography due to cancer diagnosis. The disease was so advanced that it was long unclear whether he would survive it. In retrospect, Armstrong often spoke of the fact that the agony had given him the mental tools to which he owed the following winning streak at the Tour de France.

It was only thanks to special, particularly painful chemotherapy that he managed to avoid lung damage that would have meant the end of his career.

Armstrong made his comeback in 1998 as part of the US Postal team. The victory at the Luxembourg Tour and a fourth place at the Vuelta a Espana were remarkable, but the media spoke of a sensation and of the “comeback of the century” when Armstrong won the Tour de France for the first time the following year .

Six more victories followed. After that, Armstrong did not have much success until his retirement in 2011.

Although there were serious indications back in 2000 that Armstrong had been doped in his Tour de France victories, the truth only came to light in 2010 when two former teammates confessed. The disclosures to withdraw all titles Armstrong had won since 1998.

Career highlights

Because of the doping affair and the loss of his titles, it is difficult to speak of highlights in Lance Armstrong’s career. If anything, his successful fight against cancer and the comeback that followed gave hope to many cancer patients. Armstrong continues to fight cancer through its commitment to those affected.

Famous quotes

“I didn’t invent the doping culture of cycling, but I also didn’t try to end it. Sport now pays the price for it. I’m sorry.”

“The story was so perfect for so long. You survive this illness, win the tour seven times, have a happy marriage and children. It is a mystical, perfect story. But it wasn’t real. ”

“Yes – yes – yes – yes – yes.” (Five answers to the question of whether he has ever used banned substances;

“No.” (Answer to the question of whether, in his opinion, you can win the Tour de France seven times without doping)

Amazing facts

Armstrong was at times associated with prominent women such as actress Ashley Olsen and rock singer Sheryl Crow

In 2004, Armstrong had a brief appearance alongside Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller in the movie “Full of Nuts”

Armstrong’s book “The Tour of Life” was number one on the German bestseller list