In football, for instance, steroid use seems to not be so offensive. Baseball is a bit different, so it seems. Tennis ...maybe no big deal.
My personal opinion is that sports are entertainment. People pay to see fantastic performances. We pay other entertainers to look and perform in ways normal folks can't. We have no problem with actors, singers or dancers filled with silicone, cut and pasted and doped to the max so they can function they way they want. So why the problem with an athlete enhancing human performance?
As to the TdF winner designation for Armstrong; the list of past TdF winners includes Marco Pantani, Bjarne Riis and Alberto Contador. Pantaini tested positive numerous times and died of a cocaine overdose. Riis admitted to doping and Contador was caught flat out and suspended. Yet, their names are still there.
I think if you could ask all athletes at the point of turning pro whether they would risk future health problems to use dope and dominate while they are young, the majority would say, "Yes". That means nothing beyond the human desire for fame and fortune. Is that abnormal in the world that oogles over "Dream Teams" rolling over amateurs in the Olympics?
Very true!
Decades ago I competed at the national level in bicycle racing in the USA. At that time there were no substances that seemed to give a decisive edge in road racing. People still tried and some actually died from heat stroke and other maladies after using stimulants. Large amounts of caffeine was and probably still is the most common stimulant used and is still tolerated.
The Eastern Europeans demonstrated in international competition that hormone treatments were effective in weight lifting, swimming and many other sports such as bicycle track racing. The Eastern Europeans were the most successful original innovators in these types of “scientific” training methods.
After the 1976 Olympics a Polish cycling coach named Eddie Borysewicz defected and was hired by the USCF (United States Cycling Federation) as its first full time coach. I was at one of the very first events presided over by Coach Borysewicz, the Jr. World's team trials held in Colorado Springs, CO in 1978.
One had to have a specified number of points from winning or placing in bicycle races held early in the season. I was a district champion that year and highly ranked nationally. My completion in the trials included most notably, Greg LeMond.
Like so many other endeavors by quasi-governmental organizations the Jr. Worlds Team Trials were a farce in so many ways that it would take several pages to describe it in detail. But it was an education also. The morning of the long road race the temperatures were forecast to be over 100 degrees in the afternoon. The officials decided to start it earlier than scheduled to beat the heat. Only one minor detail, no announcement was made until some of us tried to get some breakfast and were told there was no time for us to eat, and also no time to get food to take with us on the way or in the race.
Now this wasn't an issue for those such as Lemond who had family and support with them, but for many of us it was a big problem. At that time I weighed 135 pounds and had little in the way of reserves. There was no one with me to hand up water or food, I didn't get breakfast. I was in the winning break away before I bonked out. This means my reserves ran out and my blood sugar dropped. I rode to a convenience store and bought food and pop and then rode back to the line in time to see the end of the race.
A guy who I knew personally used stimulants came across the line fifteen minutes after the leaders. His face had white dried saliva all around his mouth and he looked bad... as he crossed the finish line he his eyes rolled back and he collapsed. He was still unconscious when the ambulance transported him to the hospital. I thought that he had died.
That night Coach Eddie Borysewicz who was still unable to speak English yelled at our group through a translator that those of us who hadn't finished the race would never amount to anything. Most of us were just kids who were barely able to afford a plane ticket to Colorado Springs. This was a shameful slap in the face to a bunch of kids who had given their all.
Then to top it off Coach Borysewicz held up my friend who was still in the hospital, as an example of someone who gave his all and was now one of his favorites. Of course he never amounted to anything despite his talent and willingness to use “performance enhancing drugs”.
This was the first race in my career that I hadn't finished, and it seemed obvious to me that the organizers were more than a little to blame. They were suppose to have helped those of us who had no support staff. At the time I wondered if the coach was too stupid to realize why the guy had collapsed or if being someone who was willing to take drugs to perform was somehow considered desirable to him? It has always troubled me.
Within a few years Greg Lemond went on to win the Tour de France three times even after nearly being killed in a hunting accident. I knew Greg to be an extraordinary sportsman and I find it hard to believe that he used performance enhancing drugs. Lance was also one of Eddie Borysewicz’s protégés.
I believe that the coach may have brought an attitude with him from Poland that whatever was legal or wouldn't be discovered was alright if it enhanced performance. I knew many of the riders who were caught up in the “blood doping” scandal in the 1984 Olympics. It wasn't illegal at the time and they were definitely encouraged by Eddie Borysewicz and the rest of the coaching staff to do it. I think this sent a bad message to young riders such as Lance.
At the time Lance ascended to the top... using EPO and other techniques that were truly effective were just coming into their own. The attitude was if the other guys are doing it... we are going to have to do it to only better than them. And that is what Lance did.
My biggest problem with Lance is not that he used performance enhancing techniques and then lied about it. It is that he attacked Greg LeMond and others who I know to be honorable and attempted to ruin their lives. Lemond made the constructive criticism that Lance should distance himself from Doctor Ferrari who was known to be helping others with illegal performance enhancing drugs and techniques. Lance went on a vicious campaign which caused Greg to lose nearly everything. So it is not going to bother me if the same thing happens to Lance.
I know a bunch of people who have been highly critical of professional cyclists. Mostly I think that it is funny because people who have never bicycle road raced at a high level simply have no concept of the actual effort involved. The closest most will ever come to it are longer distance running races, but even that is not really very comparable.
Sorry for the very long post.