It is official. Lance Armstrong’s seven Tour De France victories have been stripped from him for being a cheater.  I think we all saw this coming.  We are living in an era where “cleaning up” seems to be a major priority.  Athletes are taking the blame for using PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) and they are being suspended and sanctioned at a prolific pace.  As a society, we have finally decided to do something about all of these cheaters, and we are not very forgiving of those who duped us into believing they were playing clean.

But what choice did these guys really have?  Put yourself in Armstrong’s shoes.  You are a good cyclist who has just beaten testicular cancer and you are looking to compete against the greats of the cycling world (whoever they are).  But you know they are all doping.  How are you supposed to compete with that?  The simple answer is…you can’t unless you cheat too.  So now your choices are down to these; cheat like everybody else so you can compete and possibly earn glory in your sport, or take the high road, stay clean, and toil in obscurity for the rest of your life.  There is no option where you could stay clean and still win.  It was not a level playing field.  So, if you’re Lance Armstrong, you could take your Erythropoietin (EPO) and win seven Tours, marry Sheryl Crow, start the LIVESTRONG foundation (which has been a boon to so many people), go on to worldwide fame and glory, and then ultimately be labeled a cheater and be vilified by everyone.  Or you could refuse to take any illegal substances, win zero Tours, and nobody will ever remember your name.  What would you choose?  Glorious cheater or mediocre loser?

The culture of sports forced this decision on Armstrong.  As much as you may despise the myriad of professional athletes who have been known to use PEDs, most of them had no good choice left to them.  Too many people in positions of authority over our beloved sports leagues were all too happy to look the other way because the product was so good.  That left athletes in an awful position of having to choose.  I say we need to stop blaming these athletes for trying to compete in a clearly unfair environment.  It is not their fault that the only way to win was to cheat.  Let all the PED users keep their records, titles, championships, etc. and forgive them for being human.  They truly had no other choice.