This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
So, what are all of us in the "collective we" supposed to do with the notion that Lance Armstrong, a man who transcended sports, who has inspired millions with his triumph over cancer, with his determination to move forward straight through significant challenges to historic success by way of seven wins at the Tour de France, is a cheater, a drug user, a deceiver, a liar?
Damn.
Is there anything left to believe in during these sorry, sordid times?
If you didn't see Sunday's report on CBS' "60 Minutes" in which former teammate Tyler Hamilton joined others who have previously said they have knowledge that Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs, and that, in this particular case, Hamilton used those PEDs with Armstrong, then you've likely heard or read about it.
Been saddened by it … or, at least, confused.
Maybe you wear one of those Livestrong bands around your wrist or have used Armstrong's example to fight your own battles or the battles of those around you. And now, you wonder or suspect, just like the federal investigators looking into the renowned cyclist's actions, whether that example is legitimate.
Armstrong, as always, defends himself by reminding everyone that he has not failed any of the hundreds of drug tests to which he's been subjected. However, Hamilton claimed an Armstrong test for the blood-booster EPO came up positive at the 2001 Tour of Switzerland, and he pushed further that "people took care of" that positive result.
Those people — the UCI, cycling's governing body — have denied any kind of cover-up, and now are threatening a lawsuit against Hamilton, and so goes the back-and-forth.
An aggravation in the 'roided-up sports world around which we live, the same world in which we, across greater reaches, strive for an innocent-until-proven-guilty credo, is that passing drug tests never has cleared the deck of or the name in drug usage.
Look at Marion Jones, the former Olympian, who passed test after test, upward of 200 of them, during her career, claiming all along that she never took drugs.
And yet, she eventually ended up in prison for six months for lying to the feds, along with everyone else, about that usage. She also eventually confessed the shame she felt in her lie.
I once interviewed an expert in the field of drug testing, and he said he was surprised — not when modern athletes used PEDs, but, rather, when they actually were caught using them.
That's how imperfect the process is, from the standpoint of chase technology keeping up with technology used to mask the illegal usage.
That's why when former teammates come forward and give firsthand accounts about doping, cutting the legs out from under an icon like Armstrong, it slaps those who want to go on holding him aloft, not because they are sports fans, but because they are human beings, straight in the mug. Does Hamilton — along with others who've made similar claims about Armstrong — have ulterior motives in taking the cycling titan down?
Which is less likely: that Hamilton is telling the truth or that Armstrong was somehow able to not just beat a peloton of riders whose performances were annually boosted by illegal means, but to dominate those cheaters to the tune of seven Tour de France wins?
Yeah, but don't you hate that thinking?
Any time anybody in sports accomplishes anything fantastic anymore, any time anybody does anything beyond belief … well, it really is beyond belief.
It blows past belief and straight toward suspicion that whatever greatness — alleged greatness — was accomplished — a home run total, a world record, an astonishing time, a streak of wins at a grueling bike race designed to bring riders to the edge of physical and mental expiration — has been aided and tainted by hidden drugs.
Nobody knows how to react anymore.
Nobody knows what to celebrate and what to deride.
Nobody knows what to believe in.
Is Lance Armstrong a champion or a chump?
Whatever the truth is, merely having to ask the question is punishment enough for observers of sports, for people, who have to risk being fools to hold onto a little faith.
GORDON MONSON hosts "The Gordon Monson Show" weekdays from 2-6 p.m. on 104.7 FM/1280 AM The Zone. He can be reached at gmonson@sltrib.com. —
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O For an investigative report about Lance Armstrong that aired Sunday on "60 Minutes," visit