7/27/2009

Greatest Athlete

Whenever the discussion of greatest athlete comes up its always the same names: Muhammed Ali, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, etc. Lance Armstrong never seems to get brought up. Now I pretty much blame this on the lack of popularity of the sport of cycling in America (cycling is the second most popular sport in the world, behind soccer. yes folks basketball and american football arent the end all be all sports of the world). Now I insist that anyone that calls themselves a sports fan begin to consider Lance Armstrong as the greatest athlete ever. Lance won the Tour de France, one of the hardest 3 week sporting events in the world, for 7 years straight. And he did so after battling testicular cancer. Now as of Sunday, he placed 3rd in the Tour de France. Naturally you will say oh thats not good. But that is with a 4 YEAR HIATUS from the sport. Did Jordan even make it to the playoffs when he came back wearing the 4-5?

Now some will say oh Lance was on drugs. Lance is the most tested athlete in the world when it comes to in and out of competition for performance enhancing drugs. They would have caught him by now. And some will say oh well Lance just did it for himself. Nope. It's a proven fact when Lance is competitive the amount of attention and financial donations to cancer research goes up exponentially. So much that Lance is auctioning off just about every bike he rode during this years tour. Some of them which were custom painted just for specific days. Not only that but he has a shoe deal with NIKE that produced a Livestrong custom shoe line this year that will see the profits go to cancer research as well.

Now those that know me know I have been an active cyclist since I was about 13. It is not an easy sport at all. Of course people laugh because of the tight uniforms, or say it can't be that hard because everyone rides bikes. Well when you can start riding 100 miles a day, and then do it for 3 weeks straight, through anything mother nature throws at you, then throw in the Pyrenees Mountains and the Alps, and still survive...then maybe you can laugh at the sport. Until then I think we need to put Lance on the podium for greatest athlete.

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4 comments:

Unknown said...

While I have an ever-growing respect for Lance's accomplishments, I would prefer you not mention Michael Jordan if you are going to present blatant lies to the public.
In the 1995 season the Bulls had a record of 32-31 before Jordan came back. They finished 47-35. Meaning with an extremely rusty Jordan "wearin the 4-5" they were 15-4. Project that over an 82 game season and that's a record of 65-17. That was the record of the World Champion Los Angeles Lakers this past year. While the Bulls didn't win the championship, it's not a stretch to say with the home court advantage that they surely would have enjoyed had Jordan played the full season, the Bulls would have been World Champions. I say this because Jordan never lost a series in which he held home court advantage. He did indeed lead them to the playoffs that year and they defeated the Hornets in the first round despite not having home court. Subsequently the Bulls went on to threepeat for a second time, which gave him ohhhh-sixxahhh. So Jordan's comeback was indeed more succesful than Lance's on all levels.

An argument can be made that Lance is the greatest athlete. I personally don't care that he doped. But man, c'mon, of course he did.

All-En1 said...

Ok my mistake for getting the retirement wrong on MJ. I'll admit that. But even still, no one even considers his "first" retirement to count. He came back almost mid season. And ok, he made a huge impact on the team. Lance's team Astana was the most dominant team at this years Tour. And in every one of Lance's tour victories, his team was one of the most dominant teams to ever put two wheels to the pavement.

And doping? Lance is the most tested athlete in history. You expect me to believe that he is so far advanced in his cover up methods that NO ONE in the world can catch him doping? Come on now. Even every baseball player that took extra strength vitamins is discovered. But Lance? Lance is clean as a virgin in a bath tub my friend.

Jordan has 6 rings. He's not the only player to ever win 6 wins.

Lance is the only person to finish the Tour de France with 7 wins and 8 podium appearances.

Reflect.

Unknown said...

man, this post needs to have the title of your last post (I Must Be Losing My Mind), cuz yeah, you're on the same stuff Lance is on.. Greatest athlete? Really? I mean, he does his thing, but there is so much that goes into cycling.. I mean dude NEEDS his team to establish his "greatness".. Cats go out, box out other riders, and do a gang of crazy things to ensure position.. yup, other sports have role players, but the individual talent is still VERY apparent.. this isn't to bash Lance, but more to understand how this dude can even be mentioned above MJ..

All-En1 said...

Q, would Jordan have won without Pippen, Rodman, Kerr, and all those guys???